William Fowler

Case summary

Incident

William Fowler spent the morning of Sunday, April 13, 1941 in the Gas Bottom neighborhood of Spartanburg city. At 11:15 a.m., Spartanburg police received a call alleging that gambling was in progress at a home in the Gas Bottom area. William “Willie” Cleveland Hayes, 33-year-old white city detective, was one of five officers who responded to the call.

Newspapers reported that when Hayes and the other officers arrived at the home, the group of Black men inside fled. Fowler was among them.

Hayes, according to Spartanburg County Sheriff Sam Henry, immediately recognized Fowler as a suspect in another crime and began to chase Fowler on foot. Henry told local newspaper reporters that Hayes had a warrant for Fowler’s arrest in his pocket at the time.

Deputy Sheriff B.B. Brockman stated that Hayes tried to stop Fowler by firing a warning shot toward the ground. Hayes told Brockman that as he was firing a second shot, he slipped while running through “heavy brush and wet grass.”

Hayes’ second shot hit Fowler in the back of the head. Officers transported Fowler to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

Aftermath

The county coroner held an inquest on July 14. Four Black witnesses testified, as did the sheriff.

One witness initially stated that Hayes was in uniform at the time of the incident but, when unable to describe what the uniform looked like, said he was actually unsure. According to this witness, Hayes told Fowler to stop running before he fired the second shot. Hayes then “bowed over and aimed with both hands on his pistol” and fired. Another witness also stated that when Hayes fired the second shot he had both hands on the pistol. This witness estimated that Hayes was about 35 feet away from Fowler at the time.

A third witness said he saw Hayes fire the first shot with his left hand before switching the pistol over to his right. He stated that Hayes slipped in the mud as he fired the second shot.

Henry testified that Hayes slipped at the same time that Fowler “veered to the left,” stating that Hayes “had no intention of killing the man.”

The coroner’s jury determined that “Willie Fowler came to his death as the result of a gunshot wound at the hands of W.C. Hayes in the performance of his duty as a peace officer.”

Fowler was buried at Mayfield Chapel in Spartanburg County on July 16.

Nellie Fowler, William’s mother, wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt four days later. In her letter, Fowler identified Hayes as the police officer who killed her son on July 13. She wrote that authorities had claimed to have a warrant, but she added that they did not. Fowler asked Roosevelt to do right by her son, who she said was “waiting for you all to call him in camp” to prepare for military training. Fowler shared that her son took care of her and “left a wife,” but Hayes had not offered her “a penny.” She ended her letter, “Please take up this matter at once.”

T.D. Quinn, an administrative assistant at the Department of Justice (DOJ), replied to Nellie Fowler on July 30 to advise that the federal government had “no authority to intervene in such cases.” Quinn added, “We can only suggest, if you have not already done so, that you take up the matter with the department of police in your city.”

Hayes remained a member of the Spartanburg City Police until his retirement in 1973. He was, as a reporter for the Spartanburg Daily Herald wrote in a 1971 article on police training, “regarded as one of the best shots in the state.” Hayes died in 2001 at 93.

Media Gallery

Case summaries are compiled using government records and archival primary source material. These include, but are not limited to, investigative records, arrest reports, newspaper articles, court filings, census records, birth and death certificates, transcripts, and press releases. In many cases, the records contain contradictory assertions.

In addition to the incident files associated with this case, this summary relied on the following:

Sources

Genealogical Records

• Population Schedule for Spartanburg County, 1920, 1930, 1940
• Social Security Numerical Identification Files, South Carolina, United States, 2004
• Standard Certificate of Death, South Carolina, United States, 1941
• WWI Draft Registration Card, South Carolina, 1918
• WWII Draft Registration Cards, South Carolina, 1940

Newspaper Articles

• “Coroner’s Jury Empanelled for Inquest in Death of Negro Man Reported Shot by City Officer,” Spartanburg Journal and the Carolina Spartan (Spartanburg, SC), July 14, 1941
• “Lawmen Honored at Appreciation Dinner,” Daily Herald (Spartanburg, SC), January 20, 1973
• “Negro, Reported Shot by Officer, Dies of Wound,” Daily Herald (Spartanburg, SC), July 14, 1941
• Obituary for William C. Hayes, Herald-Journal (Spartanburg, SC), July 15, 2001
• “Officer Hayes is Absolved in Negro Shooting,” Spartanburg Journal and the Carolina Spartan (Spartanburg, SC), July 15, 1941
• “Officer Freed of Blame in Gunshot Death of Negro Man,” Daily Herald (Spartanburg, SC), July 15, 1941
• “Wounded Officers Improve; Police Question Youths,” Spartanburg Journal and the Carolina Spartan (Spartanburg, SC), July 25, 1952
• John Gwinn, “Spartan Police Aim at Pistol Trophies,” Daily Herald (Spartanburg, SC), October 31, 1971