Jim Leavelle (1920–2019), police officer was escorting Lee Harvey Oswald when he was shot

James R. “Jim” Leavelle was a Dallas Police Department homicide detective who was escorting Lee Harvey Oswald when he was shot by Jack Ruby. Oswald, who had assassinated President John F. Kennedy two days earlier, died shortly after the shooting. In the Pulitzer Prize-winning photo of the moment Ruby shot Oswald, Leavelle is prominent, a tall man wearing a tan suit and Stetson hat, handcuffed to Oswald and reacting with shock. Leavelle later said that he had seen Ruby out of the corner of his eye and had tried to get Oswald behind him, but he was too late. Prior to his service with the Dallas Police Department, Leavelle had served in the U.S. Navy and was stationed at Pearl Harbor when it was attacked in December 7, 1941. Leavelle retired from the police department in 1976 and went on to found a polygraph business.