|  Two police patrolmen and a bootlegger were shot when police raided a cabaret, the Cotton Club, 718 Sixth Avenue North, to investigate a fist fight at 4 a.m. on February 3, 1928.
Wounded in the cabaret gunplay were:
Patrolman James H. TREPANIER, 32 years old, 4214 Nicollet Avenue South, near death at General Hospital, with a bullet wound in his abdomen and one in his left shoulder. A dozen policemen volunteered to give him their blood in an attempt to save his life.
Patrolman Bernard Wynne, 39 years old, 3823 Bryant Avenue North, World War hero, was wounded in a gunfight two years ago in which Minneapolis Police Sergeant Michael Lawrence was killed, and Wynne was shot three times in the legs. In this latest pistol battle at the cabaret, Officer Wynne was again shot in the leg.
Harry Bloom, also known as "Kid Cann", a bootlegger and notorious North Minneapolis character, also shot in the leg.
Police gave the following account of the early morning shooting:
At 3:30 a.m., two men guests at the Cotton Club attempted to flirt with a woman entertainer. A friend of the woman objected, pistols were drawn and a fist fight followed, police were told by witnesses.
Cafe patrons closed in on the fighters and quieted them. Meanwhile someone had called the police and informed them a pistol had been drawn at the cafe. Patrolmen TREPANIER and Wynne walked into the cabaret, drew their pistols and commanded patrons of the cafe to line up to be searched for pistols.
"Call the wagon while I search them," Officer TREPANIER told Officer Wynne.
As TREPANIER started to search the first patron in line and Wynne walked to the telephone, a table was overturned in one end of the cabaret. Five men were standing around the overturned table.
There was a tense moment while the two police and five men glared at each other. Then, with a sudden movement, one of the men drew a pistol and opened fire on the officers. In a second several other pistols were drawn in the crowd.
At the first shot, Officer TREPANIER fell to the floor, severely wounded, and after two or three more shots, Office Wynne staggered when a bullet struck his leg. Both patrolmen returned the fire.
For a moment Pandemonium reigned. Pistols barked and filled the small hall with their roar. Bullets thudded into the walls, splintered chairs and tables and broke out windows.
Women and men alike screamed, dodging, scurrying and fighting to cover. Patrons turned over tables and cowered behind them, fear in their eyes.
Officer TREPANIER, stretched on the floor, groaning from his wounds, braced his right arm with his left hand and emptied his pistol at armed men in the place.
Officer Wynne only staggered when a bullet struck his leg. He emptied his pistol at the crowd and, despite the pain of his wound, brought them to order. Waving his empty pistol at the disordered mob, he commanded:
"Now all of you line up here and be quiet." He called the patrol wagon and loaded the thirty remaining patrons of the cabaret into it, directing that they be taken to police headquarters.
At headquarters, all but eight were released. These eight were lodged in jail and questioned after three pistols were seized from them.
Detectives and gun squads were sent out through the city seeking other persons believed to have escaped during the gunfight. On a tip from a man whose car was found standing in front of the cabaret, detectives were sent to St. Paul in search of three men believed to have been companions of the man said to have started the shooting.
Bloom, who was taken to General Hospital under guard after he had been questioned by police, is said to be the same Harry Bloom who gave himself up May 1, 1924, and was charged with first degree murder in connection with the shooting of a man in a loop cafe. Bloom told police he had shot the man accidentally. He was never prosecuted on the charge.
The condition of officer TREPANIER remained unchanged at General Hospital, as two patrolmen submitted to blood transfusion operations in an attempt to save his life. Office Wynne and Harry Bloom, both shot in the leg, were reported out of danger.
Superintendent of Police Frank Brunskill ordered the Cotton Club establishment closed and declared his intentions to close every similar place in Minneapolis. Meanwhile, every cabaret in the city was under police observation. A week later, the license of the Cotton Club was revoked by the city council for violating city ordinances.
The Hennepin County grand jury indicted four men on first degree assault charges in connection with the shooting of the two patrolmen at the cabaret.
One of the four was Harry Bloom, who was charged with the shooting and wounding of Patrolman Wynne. Bloom went into court and pleaded not guilty to the charge, and was released on $2,500 bond.
The other three indicted men, who are all charged with shooting Patrolman Trepanier, are still at large. Of these three men sought by police, one is a former South Dakota sheriff who had served a term in the South Dakota penitentiary, a second is a Sioux Falls South Dakota fight manager and the third is a former St. Paul barkeeper.
Officer TREPANIER never recovered from the injuries he suffered in the gun battle. One bullet struck him in the spine, paralyzing him from the waist down.
Since the shooting, TREPANIER had been in the hospital numerous times. Once, after he had partially recovered, he opened a jewelry store at Lake Street and Chicago Avenue South, but soon afterward went back to the hospital. Later, he moved his jewelry repair bench to Veterans' Hospital where he designed and made jewelry and repaired watches when able to sit up.
Officer TREPANIER waged a ten year long fight against his paralysis, but he had grown worse steadily for more than a year, and finally succumbed on September 20, 1938, at the U.S. Veterans' Hospital. He was 42 years old when he died.
TREPANIER had been a patrolman for 5 years at the time of his injury. He had been cited for bravery in the capture of a bandit in 1924. He had served as a motorcycle policemen prior to his transfer to the North Side precinct.
Officer TREPANIER was survived by his wife and two daughters. |