Percy Sawyer
1898-Dec. 20, 1961
Niles Daily Star, Friday, December 22, 1961, page 2, col. 4-5, microfilm Niles District Library.
Say Similarity of Dress, Appearance Led to Death
NILES POLICE today continued preparations for next Friday's Niles Municipal Court examination of Walter Welton Fisk, 48, 114 1/2 N. Front St., on a murder charge.
Police Chief Arthur Pears said this morning that it appears that a similarity of dress and general physical appearance caused Fisk to mistake the victim, Percy Sawyer, 63, 102 1/2 N. Front St. . .[illegible]. .(Bullwhip) Brooks, 51, Hatcherville.
Sawyer was fatally wounded by a 12-gauge shotgun blast at the Riverview Inn, 22 N. Front St., about 9:24 p.m. Wednesday. Sawyer was standing at the bar in the tavern and Brooks was seated at a nearby table.
BROOKS AND Fisk had quarrelled earlier in the night over a 50-cent debt that Brooks owed to Fisk. Police said that Fisk entered a card game after the argument and then left the tavern.
According to police, he returned with the shotgun and fired at Sawyer, probably mistaking him for Brooks. Sawyer, a city employe, caught the full blast in his left side. He died eight hours later at Pawating Hospital.
Sawyer had lived in Niles since 1950. He was born in Mississippi.
Surviving are two sisters, Mildred Sawyer, Detroit, and Mrs. Susie Hall, Indianola, Miss., and a brother, Turner Sawyer, Detroit.
Funeral services will be at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Pifer Funeral Home with the Rev. Theodis Hadley, pastor of Mount Calvary Baptist Church, officiating. Burial will be in Silverbrook Cemetery.