A SHOOTING AFFAIR.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 127, 29 May 1919, Page 5

A SHOOTING AFFAIR.

FATHER BADLY WOUNDED. SON IN CUSTODY. With a "Welcome Home" sign still hanging up over the front door in honour of the return of a. son from the war, ■Tenlee," Tasman Street, Bondi. Sydney, ■was. last week the scene of a serious shooting afTray. As an outcome, Joseph Walker (54), now lies in the St. Vincent's Hospital, suffering from bullet wounds in the head and back. His condition is so critical that the police have takcii his dying depositions. A 21-year-old son, George, who returned from active service on Friday, gave himself up to the Waverlcy police shortly after the shooting. He was there charged with shooting, with intent to murder. — The early morning stillness and quietness to which the residents in the locality of Tasman .Street are generally accustomed was abruptly disturbed by the discharge of revolver shots at about ! half an hour after midnight. One of those awakened was Constable O. E. Severin, who is attached to Police Headquarters, and lives in Phillip Street, Bondi—a short distance from the scene of the shooting. At first the police oflicer was under the impression that the shots had been fired by a crowd of hoodlnnis, but even this ■would have been an unusual occurrence in the locality. He was just properly awake when shrill | |male crins of "Murder!" "Police!" pierced ] the neighbourhood. Constable Severin I jumped out of bed, hurriedly slipped on a i pair of trousers and boots, and grabbing ■ a revolver, made off in the direction from ! which he had heard the shots. J In the meantime Joseph Walker had ! rushed out of his home, followed by the rest of the family. He only, went a short j distance, however, and collapsed in the ! gutter at the corner of Tasman and ' Phillip Streets. ; He was seen lying there surrounded by ] a highly excitable crowd of women clad in their night attire, when Constable ! Severin arrived on the scene, j Eventually the women let the constable I through to the old man, who was suffer- j ing from two bullet wounds in the head and two in the back. He was taken to a. nearby chemist and subsequentlly to the St. Vincent's Hospital, accompanied by Constable Stoppe, of the Darlinghurst . Station, who also lives near the scene of the trouble. The police report of the affray says that the son was seated in the front room with his two sisters showin" them letters he had received at the front. It is alleged that the father ordered them to put the light out and walked out of the room with a hammer in his hand to his wife's room, followed b y his son. The next thing hoard was two shots, and the father was seen to run out of the iront door to the gate, and while doinso two more shots were fired. \n o l them took effect. I = r^T=