Officer Neill A. Yarborough, Sr. had only been a State Highway Officer for a few months and was still commissioned as a Bossier Parish Deputy. Bossier City Town Marshall George Huckaby and Bossier City Police Officer Jobe Wilson had received information that Joe Airey, a fugitive from Caddo Parish, was at the Buckhall Plantation north of Bossier City. They requested assistance from the Bossier Sheriff's department, but no help was available at the time. Officer Yarborough was asked to assist Marshall Huckaby and Officer Wilson effect an arrest, a job Neill readily accepted since he had helped the Caddo and Bossier Sheriff's departments many times before. Officer Yarborough, ignoring the pleading of his wife not to go, left with the two officers and proceeded to the Buckhall Plantation. The three officers arrived at the Buckhall Plantation at approximately 10:30 p.m. Wilson and Huckaby went to the front of the house. Neill Yarborough watched the rear. When Wilson and Huckaby knocked on the front door, the Caddo Parish escapee bolted out of the rear of the house, spotted Yarborough, and opened fire with a .45 caliber handgun. Yarborough died minutes later of a bullet wound near his heart. Airey was captured the next day at a cabin 1½ miles away. He was shot twice by deputies while trying to flee, then lynched and riddled with bullets by a mob before deputies could drive him to the Benton jail.

At the time of his death, Neill A. Yarborough, Sr. was 32 years old and had been employed as a State Highway Officer for three months.