Robert F. Dula, Jr.

End of Watch : April 8, 1955

Department: Las Vegas Metropolitan, Nevada, P.D.
End of Watch: April
Officer Robert F. Dula, Jr. joined the Las Vegas Police Department on June 16, 1952, at 22 years of
age.
After working in the Uniform Division for a little over a year, he was transferred to the Detective Bureau.
The Department had no Juvenile Division at that time and Detective Dula, in addition to his other duties,
was assigned to handle juveniles coming to the attention of the police.
Officer Dula was promoted to Sergeant on January 16, 1954, at the young age of 25, and a year later
transferred to the Traffic Division as the Swing Shift Supervisor.
On April 8, 1955, at 2250 hours, just ten minutes before the end of his tour of duty, Sergeant Dula and
his partner received a call to aid a citizen who was reported lying injured in the street at Las Vegas
Boulevard and Fremont.
The two motorcycle officers turned on their red lights and sirens and proceeded west on Fremont toward
the intersection where the citizen was reported injured. At 12th and Fremont Streets, Sergeant Dula,
traveling to the rear of his partner, was struck broadside by a car operated by two juveniles, who
immediately left the scene of the accident.
Sergeant Dula’s motorcycle was thrown out of control, striking two other vehicles as it careened some
one hundred feet from the scene of the accident to where it finally came to rest against the curb.
Sergeant Dula, critically injured, was rushed to the emergency room at Southern Nevada Memorial
Hospital.
A team of doctors tried vainly to save his life, however, he died at approximately 0120 hours. Sergeant
Dula was 26 years of age.
There is perhaps some irony in the fact that the two teenagers who struck Sergeant Dula and left him to
die, were the suspects fleeing from the scene of Sergeant Dula’s “Assist a Citizen” call.
Robert Dula was survived by a wife and two small children.

---