Aaron Charles Laubach

 

 

• Hamilton City Patrolman
• Averaged ten notable arrests per year
• Killed in a shootout during an armed robbery

 

Aaron was born about April 5, 1902, in Hamilton, Ohio. His father, Rudolph George “Rudy” Laubach, joined the Butler County Sheriff’s Office in 1918 and was elected Sheriff in 1920. He served until 1924.

Aaron was a mechanic from his early teen years until January 25, 1930, when he took a Civil Service examination and scored high enough to be appointed as a Hamilton City Patrolman. His appointment was announced by Police Chief J. C. Calhoun on April 16, 1930. That night he was already making newspaper headlines for the apprehension of a fugitive. In the next seven years, his name would appear in newspapers 79 times, almost always for arrests.

Perhaps his most memorable arrest was on June 2, 1931, when a driver of a truck loaded with $7000 of bonded whiskey (almost $175,000 in 2024 dollars) outran Cincinnati policemen in a running shootout, and Patrolman Laubach captured the truck and its driver near LeSourdsville without firing a shot. The driver was turned over to federal authorities.

On September 24, 1932, 40 policemen graduated from the first Cincinnati Police School opened to all police officers within the Cincinnati Regional Police Association, which comprised of four counties in Ohio and two in Kentucky. Fourteen graduates were from the Hamilton Police Department, including Patrolmen Laubach, Arthur Sponsel, and Earl Grubb. Within five years, all three would be shot dead.

On January 27, 1938, Patrolman Laubach engaged an armed robber at the Pater’s Gas Station. The ensuing shootout ended with Patrolman Laubach being shot in the head. He died within five minutes at 7:20 p.m. from shock and hemorrhage from bullet wounds of the skull and brain, chest and lungs, and left arm. He was the second Hamilton Patrolman killed in the line of duty within nine months.

For more details on his life, death, and aftermath, see his Line of Duty Death Page.

 

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