On Saturday, November 30, 1895 Deputy Sheriff Carl F. Court was on duty patrolling the Chaneyville Precinct, located on the western side of Houston, Harris County, Texas. Chaneyville or Chaney Junction, as it was sometimes called, was located on the west side of Houston bordering on Washington Avenue and Studemont Street, then north along Center Street. Deputy Carl F. Court was on duty on Saturday, November 30, 1895 when after attending to some business in Houston he returned to the Chaneyville area around 2100 hrs, that same evening. He began patrolling the Terrapin Lake section of the Chaneyville area and had entered a local ballroom and saloon called Buckner’s Place about 2130 hrs. Deputy Court walked over to the bar to talk with the owner, Mr. James Buckner. While talking to Mr. Buckner a shot rang out that came from outside the bar through a partially broken window. Mr. Buckner said he felt the heat of the bullet as it whizzed by. Deputy Court cried out, “My God, who fired that shot?” Mr. Buckner stated that when Deputy Court uttered these words he wheeled around and ran through the door to the dance room. Mr. Buckner, not realizing that the bullet had hit Deputy Court, thought that he had gone outside to find the person that had fired the shot. Mr. Buckner followed into the adjoining room and found Deputy Court collapsed on the floor and quickly realized he was dying and unable to speak. Medical aid was summoned, but it was too late, Deputy Court lay on the floor mortally wounded and died within minutes from the gunshot wound he had received to the chest and had penetrated his heart. Acting Coroner, Judge Joseph Devine, was summoned to the scene along with Harris County Sheriff Alexander Erichson and two deputies. Deputy Court’s wife was summoned to the scene along with her children. According to the Houston Daily Post newspaper dated Sunday, December 1, 1895 a peculiar circumstance occurred a day before his murder and had Deputy Court told it to proper authorities, it may have lead to a clue as to the identity of his assassin. Mr. W.F. Mills, who was a close friend of the dead officer, told the story to a Post reporter. He stated that Deputy Court had received a threatening letter from an unknown black man who said he would kill him on Saturday night. The story of Mr. Mills went as follows: “I met Deputy Court on Main Street on Friday, November 29, 1895 and during the course of our conversation, Deputy Court stated that he had just bought a new pistol. Deputy Court told Mr. Mills that his old gun was rusty and he had just bought a new one because he did not want to take any chances with his old one, especially since he had just received a threatening letter from an unknown black man who said he would be out to Chaneyville to kill him on Saturday night. Since Deputy Court did not seem to think to seriously about the threat, I did not press him for more information about the incident. Mr. Mills told the reporter that Deputy Court remarked that he was accustomed to such things in dealing with the desperate characters of this section of town.” Deputy Court was a fearless officer in the discharge of his duties, yet he possessed those many good traits, which go to make up a character that all fellowmen should admire. Deputy Court had spent a year’s hard work in weeding out the rough and desperate characters from the Chaneyville precinct by forcing them to leave or sending them to the penitentiary. He was raised in Harris County and knew every man, woman, and child and every foot of ground in the precinct. Everyone knew “Charlie Courts” and his friends were legion. Sheriff Erichson and his deputies later arrested a black male suspect and placed him in the county jail, charging him with “Threatening to take the Life” of Deputy Carl F. Court. According to official Harris County District Court records, a Grand Jury met and a trial was held. A verdict was rendered in the case, but the defendant was found not guilty. Forty-three-year-old Deputy Carl F. Court was duly appointed as a deputy sheriff for the Harris County Sheriff’s Office under Sheriff Alexander Erichson. Deputy Court was the 1st deputy to die in the line of duty with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.