In the early morning hours of Thursday, June 15, 1950, Louis "Frenchy" Cashat, Dayton's night watchman, became the city's first and, as of 2019, only law enforcement officer to be killed in the line of duty. Before Dayton had a police department, the law was handled by an elected city marshal and a night watchman, and Cashat had long held that post. He was 51 years old and lived with his wife Adia and their family south of Dayton on Highway 146. What was usually a routine job turned deadly after two teenagers, Johnny Deciga, 17, and Jimmie Simmons, 15, stole a vehicle in Houston with their girlfriends and drove it to Dayton. When the car ran out of gasoline on Highway 146 toward Baytown, the boys went to John Griffitts's home seeking fuel. Griffitts had none, but offered to drive them to town. Suspecting trouble, he drove slowly, and when the boys feared he meant to turn them over to the law, they tried to take his car. Griffitts pulled a gun, Deciga attacked him with a knife, and as Cashat approached the car after hearing the disturbance in town, Deciga shot him. Cashat died instantly at the scene near the northeast corner of Highway 90 and Church Street after being struck by bullets in the left breast, face, and shoulder. Lawmen found six empty shells in the parking lot. Griffitts, though badly wounded, reached Bob Hillier's home, where authorities were called and he was taken to Dayton Memorial Hospital. The boys fled in different directions; Simmons was captured nearby inside the kitchen of First Baptist Church, and a search party later found Deciga in a rice field two miles southwest of Dayton. He signed a confession and gave details of the crime.