Former Louisville police detective Bobby W. Branham, 76, died on May 14, 2013 after decades of health problems that began with a violent attack on July 16, 1972. While conducting surveillance on East Oak Street he confronted two men stealing a police radio from his personal vehicle; as he attempted to make an arrest a third person approached and shot him in the abdomen with a shotgun. The wound nearly killed him, required an eight-month hospital stay with multiple surgeries, and forced medical retirement after a 13-year career.

Branham had been honored as Police Officer of the Year in 1969 and received a Mayor’s Award in 1973. The shooter, Ivan Ray Jackson Jr., was later convicted of malicious shooting and wounding and given a two-year sentence; the man who was being arrested for the theft received 30 days for resisting arrest. The final surgery to remove an obstruction caused by the old wound is reported to have led to Branham’s death.