On July 25, 1922, about 4 am, Officer Walter W. Martin was walking his beat on Assembly Street. While approaching the corner of Washington Street, he noticed a new Dodge touring car was parked in front of the Imperial Drug Store. He also discerned that a man and woman were seated in the vehicle. Suspecting that some illicit doings were occurring, Martin approached the automobile. As the Columbia Record noted, “Officer Martin mounted the running board just as the driver gave the car some juice. The patrolman was about to undertake a harrowing ride around the downtown.”

Apparently, the Dodge vehicle sped around a dozen blocks. Throughout the ordeal Martin desperately grasped the door, while attempting “to compel the driver to bring his machine to a stop.”

Initially, Martin vainly tried to extricate his .32 caliber revolver from its holster. During a wide swing onto Hampton Street, Martin dropped his gun on the pavement. The police never recovered this lost weapon.

The driver repeatedly swerved sharply to throw off the policeman. Martin recalled the woman struck him several times with an umbrella. Interestingly, no one ever claimed to have witnessed this singular spectacle. When turning the corner at Bull and Senate Streets, the motorist deliberately headed toward a curbside shade tree. As the vehicle grazed the trunk, Martin finally was tossed to the ground. “Thereupon, the driver evidently continued on his way ,” a reporter added. The unconscious officer was lying face down on the sidewalk for approximately 30 minutes.

After recovering his senses, the dazed, bleeding officer began staggering toward the central police station on Main Street. A passing motorist, Byron Price, stopped and drove him to that destination. At that point, Chief Detective Fred S. Strickland personally drove the officer to Baptist Hospital for emergency medical treatment. Within three weeks, however, he had returned to active duty.

Several hours after the incident, the Dodge touring car was found abandoned on Saluda Street. A routine check revealed the owner was Osmond Owings of 1622 Pulaski Street. Owings ruefully acknowledged he had loaned his vehicle that evening to a neighbor, John Samuels.

After his arrest several days later in Eastover, Samuels readily admitted to being the driver. He and his woman companion, Rosa Lee Fleming, had been drinking some corn whiskey when the officer appeared on the scene. The police already suspected Samuels was an active bootlegger. Lieutenant John R. Swearingen ultimately learned Miss Fleming had departed the city by train a couple days earlier... on the Richland County chain gang.

Apparently, Fleming did not return to Columbia until the interest in the case had subsided. Doubtless, when walking the beat on subsequent evenings, Officer Martin was cautious when approaching any parked automobiles.