Sheriff Joe Hazen was killed while performing his duties attempting to apprehend a group of train robbers including the infamous Kid Curry. Sunday June 4, 1899 Sheriff Hazen and Natrona County Sheriff Oscar Hiestand led a posse after the outlaw group accompanied by Deputy Samuel Jenkins and and Sheriff Jesse Tyler of Grand County, Utah along with Patrolmen Robert Saylor and William Dinwiddie of the Knoxville, Tennesee Police Dept. That fateful day Patrolmen Saylor and Dinwiddie were gunned down and Sheriff Hazen took a bullet to the stomach, dying the next day as a result of the wound.

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Kid Curry was subsequently tried and convicted for his involvement in the murders, yet escaped from the local jail before being transported to prison.