On July 20, 1931, Prohibition Agents Curtis Burks, George Small, Glen Palmer, Mark Weiser, Kenneth Thompson, George Craig, Clifford McMaster, Allen Aldridge, Ray Gaston, and A. C. Anderson, along with six local officers, were conducting liquor investigations along the north side of Kansas City, MO.  While executing a search warrant at the Lusco-Note Flower Shop at 1039 Independence Avenue, the agents discovered a well dressed young male suspect, later identified by the agents as Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd, in a back bedroom.  Observed on the bed were a number of .45 caliber bullets.  Agent Burks searched the man and removed a .45 caliber pistol from his waistband.  However, before he could continue the search, the suspect drew another .45 caliber pistol from the opposite side of his body and shot Agent Burks twice. Agent Burks was taken to Research Hospital and determined to be paralyzed from the waist down. Agent Burks died two days later from his wounds, including a chest wound where his spinal cord was injured and another in his abdomen puncturing his bladder, on July 22, 1931.

Suspect Floyd then ran into a hallway where he encountered Agent Anderson, who he also shot.  As suspect Floyd ran from the building, he shot and wounded Kansas City Police Officer Clarence Reedy in the neck and a civilian, M. Wilson, and escaped.  At about the same time, a search of the entire building was underway and another suspect, John Calio, was found hiding inside a box.  He was shot and killed by Detective-Lieutenant E. C. Nelson when Calio assaulted him and attempted to take away his shotgun.  Agents later searched the room where Floyd was first encountered and uncovered laundry bills and a man's suit bearing cleaner's marks and a label from a Chicago tailor.  A trace of the suit revealed that it had been handmade for Charles Arthur Floyd.  Prohibition Agents at the scene positively identified the suspect that had shot Agent Burks as suspect Floyd from a photo.

Floyd was later killed during a shootout with local officers and FBI agents in East Liverpool, OH, on October 1934.  Official records at ATF show that agents clearly identified Floyd as the shooter of Agent Burks and wounding of Agent Anderson.

Agent Burks, born in Bedford, IA, joined the Bureau of Prohibition on February 3, 1930. He was survived by his wife, Gladys and son, Curtis, Jr. Interred: Oak Hill Cemetery, Butler, Bates County, MO.