Pasco police honor slain town marshal 60 years after he was killed

While the story of Washtucna’s slain town marshal Walter Little may have faded, his family and Pasco police haven’t forgotten him.

Little headed up the small Adams County town’s one-person police force when a stranger gunned him down inside the general store on April 29, 1961.

Sixty years after his death, a group of Pasco police officers honored him and his family in a Fraternal Order of Police ceremony.

Pasco police Sgt. Jamie Raebel grew up in Kahlotus and had known the family since he was a little kid. It wasn’t until some time later that he made the connection between the family and the story of the slain officer.

“We’re actually trying to make up for something that wasn’t done,” he said. “I’ve dedicated my life to serving people, and I think people killed doing that should be recognized.”

After Little, 65, retired from farming he became a “civic fixture” in the rural community 14 miles east of Kahlotus in Franklin County, according to a story in Official Detective Stories detailing the crime.

In addition to his law enforcement work, Little held several public works positions, oversaw Washtucna parks and was a charter member of the city fire department.

The day he was shot, Little was headed fishing with a friend when we came across a driver later identified as Edward J. Koehn stopped along the road in a rainstorm near the Adams and Franklin county line.

Little stopped to ask the man of he needed help. The stranger said no and they continued on.

Later in the day, Little returned to town and was talking to people in the general store when Koehn shot him through the glass of the shop window, according to the Official Detective Stories article.

Later when officers caught Koehn, he provided no motive for the shooting.

Little’s death came a year before then-President John F. Kennedy started the National Peace Officer’s Memorial Service. While Little was remembered on a monument for fallen officers, Raebel said he was never recognized during the service.

He set out working with the Tri-City Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police to fix that. And they paid to put together a shadow box.

The family members including Little’s daughter, now 80, were at a recent ceremony to honor him.