POLICEMAN KILLS THIEF.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 170, 19 July 1924, Page 19

POLICEMAN KILLS THIEF.

PISTOI, DUEL IN NEW YORK. A SPANISH GUNMAN. CITY MAGISTRATE'S COMMENDATION. Morris Richmond. m:inag.er of the Belmore Lunch. Broadway. New York, was shot by a hold-np man and when the mail left was not expected to survive. His assailant, a Spaniard 'thought to have arrived from tine West, was pursued and kll'c- iv a r'stol fi-lit by F.itrolman Thomas Cassidy. of I ho Reach Street Station. The bandit, a swarthy, furtive, nervous Individual, lirst went into the Belmore Lunch, which is between Reade and Duane Streets, about 5 o'clock. He stepped in and peered about as though looking for someone, and, after considerable hesitation, took a meal ticket and advanced to the counter. The strange combination of hesitancy ami iletennin.-ni.ru led Klchmond to notice him particularly. He ordered apple pie and coffee and devoured them iv an absentminded fashion, shooting glances to right and left as he ate. He paid his check and went out. It was 7.45 when he returned. Richmond was alone in the lunchroom, counting the day's receipts preparatory to going home. This time the shabby caller betrayed no hesitancy. He walked up to the cashier's desk and confronted Richmond with an automatic pistol. "Take a walk for yourself, fella." he advised, motioning wiith his pistol toward the cellar stairs, which are behind the cashier's desk. Richmond's hands had shot ceiling-ward as he glimpsed the pistol, but checks amounting to SOD dollars lay before him on the desk and he had 60 dollars of h'.s own in his pocket, as well as several hundred dollars of the firm's money in the cash register, which he resolved to save If nerve and diplomacy could do it. "Listen," he said, "I can dig up 60 dollars of my own for you, but If you rob the place you are likely to cost mc my job. and I have a family to mipport: have a heart." "Dig up the sixty bucks," advised the Spaniard. Richmond did so, while the robber kept his pistol centred on the second button of his coat. I "Now take a walk (for yourself," directed his caller, mortioning again toward the cellar stairs. Richmond turned as though to obey, but when he had cleared the desk, suddenly whirled and tried to seize the bandit's pistol. The latter flred two shots as quickly as a man might clap his hands together. Both struck Richmond In the abdomen. Nevertheless he grappled with his assailant. Patrolman Kills Bandit. """ The latter, pausing only to snatch the bundle of checks from the desk, tore himself loose and ran down Broadway to Reade Street, leaving his viotlm on the sidewalk. In the Baltimore Lunch, two doors above ] the Belmore, Patrolman Cassidy, who had , telephoned to his station and announced he was taking a half hour off for supper, was eating. He heard the shots and abandoned his lunch. The hold-up man, his pistol still in his hand, was vanishing eastward into Reade Street. Cassidy gave chase. Betraying a remarkable knowledge of the neighbourhood for a stranger less than twenty-four hours in the city, the fugitive darted into Catherine Alley, a narrow, _• shaped by-way which lea-Js into Elm Street. Cassidy followed him afoot ito Elm Street, where he turned north. Two shots which the patrolman flred In the air failed to halt the gunman, and Cassidy Jumped on the running board ol a taxlcab and followed. Tries to Shoot Patrolman. Worth Street, Into which the fugitive turned west, stretched quiet and deserted before him. The wholesale houses were locked and shuttered. Xo alleys or doorways offered refuge. His footsteps rang emptily In the street and behind him the taxi was gaining fast In front of 104, Worth Street, he wheeled suddenly and crouched, his automatic levelled at the approaching vehicle ana steadie< across his left fore-arm. Frank Weiner, of 4916, Fort Hamilton Parkway. Brooklyn, the impressed driver, did not flinch, but held straight at the gunman ■ as though to leap the curb and run him down. Flame stabbed the dusk of the deserted street as tho bandit pulled the trigger of ' bis automatic. Four times he fired, but he ■ was panting from his exertions and his - hullets went wild, although his rapidly approaching target was within flflty feet ot him when the last shot was flred. Cassidy, crouching on tbe running hoard, 1 flred twice. One bullet struck the gunman in the abdomen and ithe other shattered his jaw and severed his Jugular vein. He was virtually dead when Cassidy reached him. Two cartridges remained unflred in the magazine of his automatic. Cassidy ' had one left in his revolver. ! Aa Cassidy Jumped to the sidewalk, ani other motor car drew up with squealing brakes behind the taxlcab, and a man In , evening clothes, who had seen the earlier 1 lap of the race, sprang out and shook the - paitroiman's hand. '- "I'm Magistrate Reynolds, of Brooklyn," • he said, "and I'm here to say that you ; did a good job." Casstdy neatly kicked tbe automatic from the stiffening fingers which still held it and then turned to receive the congratulations of Magistrate Reynolds. Close behind ' j him were Detective Roy, Governor Smith's bodyguard in New York, and Lieutenant I'arley, of the Oak Street station, who had \ joined the chase, having no taslc-ab, were _ too late to be In at the finish. Employees of the Baltimore Lunch put 5 Richmond In a taxi and took him to E Beekman Street hospital. He is said to be 3 dying. Stupor overtook him while he was 1 telliug his story to Detective Sullivan, Id-

terruptlug it at brief Intervals to beg the Interne administering stimulants to save him for a few minutes. "Just save mc till my wife gets here," he implored. "That's all I ask." Unconscious as Wife Arrives. He asked more than the phj'slclans could accomplish. He had been unconscious half an hour when Mrs. Richmond reached the hospital. The name Alfonso Zavatela and tbe address, San Francisco, were on a tag in the dead hold-up man's coat and appeared also on letters and papers iv his pockets, among which were his first citizenship papers, showing him to be a native of Spain. A Shipping Board discharge showed he haserved as steward on one of its vessels. He had a chauffeur's license issued in Sun Francisco In _9_2. There also was a note book ln which were entries in Spanish after the fashion of a diary. The last of there ran, "One night in New York."