NURSE SHOT DEAD.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 308, 29 December 1922, Page 8

NURSE SHOT DEAD.

MENTAL HOSPITAL TRAGEDY. EX-PATIENT RUNS AMOK. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, December 22. A nurse was shot dead, another nurse wounded, and the medical superintendent and several other people had narrow escapes from death at tlie Kenmore Mental Hospital at Ooulburn, in New South Wβ lee, last Saturday, as the result of Richard Galbralth Sindell, a returned soldier and ex-patient, running amok. Sindell ,wlio arrived in Croulburn the previous night, reached Kenmore about 11 a.m. Qβ evaded the gatekeeper and strolled along the flower beds. Nurses Naughton and Cartwright had finished lunch, and were sitting on the parapet near the administration block. Sindell walked past, retraced his steps, then stopped and drew a revolver from his pocket. He fired point-blank, and Nurse Naughton fell shot through the body. Sindell fired again, the second bullet penetrating the dying girl's brain and killing her instantly. Sindell then turned away, and seeing Nurse Barnes walking around a corner fired, knocking her cap off and blowing away the head of a hatpin, but leaving her unscathed. The manager (Mr. Bankin), who was sitting in his office, heard shots and screams, and ran across the rose-covered verandah, when Sindell pointed the revolver at him and pulled the trigger. The weapon missed fire. Reloading. Sindell opened fire on Dr. Moffatt, medical superintendent, who had appeared on the scene, and fired five shots, missing each time. Another nurse, Mabel Follent, sustained a flesh Mound in the arm. Meanwhile Mr. Rank in had run to his "house and loaded a double-barrelled gun with shot, cartridges. He returned to see Sindell turn from a fruitless attempt to shoot the superintendent, and made for the entrance gates. Mr. Rankin fired, and one pellet struck the fugitive on the | forehead. He at once dropped the revolver and surrendered. Later Mr. Rankin said that Sindell, when caught, said he had been hypnotised and told to go to Kenmore and shoot someone. Evidently he had been drinking. In the Court it was stated that Sindcll bought the revolver in Sydney and went to Kenmore with the intention of shooting Dr. Moffitt, whom h e alleged had detained him there while sane. Ho shot at the nurses because he meant to shoot anyone at Kenmore. The tragedy caused a profound sensation in the city, completely overshadowing the elections. Nurse Naught on was one of.-the best nurses in the hospital, and beloved by patients and visitors «like.