YOUTH SENT FOR TRIAL ON ATTEMPTED MURDER CHARGE

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33067, 7 November 1972, Page 2

YOUTH SENT FOR TRIAL ON ATTEMPTED MURDER CHARGE

Michael Ewan McKenzie, aged 17, an apprentice carpenter, was yesterday committed for trial in the Supreme Court in Christchurch on December 4 on a charge of attempting to murder an Ashburton policeman.

The accused had pleaded not guilty in the Magistrate’s Court to attempting to murder Constable Vincent Paul Nolan at the Ashburton police station on the evening of September 15.

Mr J. D. Kinder, S.M., found that a prima facie case had been established. He remanded the accused In custody, and ordered that he be kept apart from other prisoners pending the trial. Mr N. W. Williamson, of Christchurch, appeared for the Crown and Mr R. G. Sinclair. of Ashburton, for McKenzie. DRIVE TO RAKAIA

John Patrick Dwyer, aged 18, a freezing works labourer, said that on the evening of September 15 he had gone with a Laurie McCormick in the latter’s car to Rakaia to get some beer. There were three others in the car, including the accused. In the car the accused had a discussion with the witness and said he did not feel too good, and was going "to shoot someone or some-

thing.” After returning from Rakaia and having a feed the accused said he “felt crook,” and asked to be taken home. He was dropped off at his home at 10.15 p.m. Each person in the car had drunk about two bottles of beer. Paul James Gibson, aged 16, a painter and paperhanger a passenger in the car, also gave evidence of the accused’s saying he felt sick and wanted to go home, and that he was going to do something stupid. He would not say what he would do, but that they would read about it in the papers. There was talk about firearms and the accused asked the witness if he had any .303 calibre bullets.

Later that evening the others learned that a policeman had been shot. “Michael had said something about doing something stupid, so we went to his place to see if he had done it

“1 went into his bedroom, and he was there in his pyjamas. I asked Michael if he had shot the policeman, and he said: ‘No, don’t be silly’.” CONSTABLE’S EVIDENCE Constable Nolan said he was alone in the police station from 10 p.m. on September 15.

At 10.25 p.m. he was answering a telephone call when the accused walked into the foyer, carrying a doublebarrel shotgun. “The accused just stood at the counter, with the shotgun just below the level of the counter. He did not say anything. The witness said he then connected the telephone call, and moved towards the counter. “The accused then drew the shotgun up over the counter and pointed it at me. “The next second there was a bang, and I felt a pain in the left chest. I was about 4ft away from the muzzle when I heard the blast.” The accused had not said anything and the witness had not spoken to him. The accused left the police station after firing the shot, and the witness sat down in a chair and called the Christchurch police to tell them of the shooting. He then telephoned the 111 emergency number for an ambulance. . Cross-examined by Mr Sinclair, Constable Nolan said he did not know the accused by name, but recognised him as a local vouth. He could not recall ever having spoken to the accused previously. Valda Mary Wheeler, a married woman, said her house had an extension telephone to the police station, which was two doors away.

She heard the telephone buzzing, but nobody replied when she answered it After prising a line she heard somebody say: "Help me, help me. I’ve been shot.”

The witness ran to the police station. She saw Constable Nolan lying on the floor. There was a wound in his chest.

Her son telephoned for an ambulance, while she called the patrol car over the radio. Dr Warner Paul Hirsch, a surgeon at Ashburton Hospital, said he performed an emergency operation on Constable Nolan. The constable had a hole about l?in by 3}in in the upper abdomen and lower chest.

The surgeon detailed the extent of the wound, including fragmentation of ribs and the collapse of a lung. There were also numerous perforations by pellets, with shot powder marks, round the wound. There was also a laceration of the spleen. In his opinion the injuries were consistent with a shotgun blast from a range of 4ft to 6ft. GUN UNDER BED

The accused’s brother, John Alexander McKenzie, aged 24, a linotype operator, said he was the owner of a shotgun. He was watching the late news on television on the evening of September 15 and heard that a policeman had been shot.

The shotgun was usuallykept in his brother’s wardrobe.

Later that evening he inspected the shotgun, and saw that one barrel had been fired. He replaced it under his bed and went to Michael’s

bedroom. His mother told him to leave Michael alone. Cross-examined, the witness said that after checking the shotgun, he found his brother asleep. He awakened him, and asked him if he had shot the policeman. His brother said “No,” or “Nothing.” MOTHER’S EVIDENCE

The accused’s mother, Mary Sheehan, of Willow Street, said her son left home to walk into town at 6.30 p.m. She saw him return home in Lawrence McCormick’s car about 10.10 p.m. He walked through the kitchen and opened a door in some other part of the house.

He then returned to the kitchen, and said he was going to Lawrence’s place. On the way out he went into the sleepout where her other sons, John and Robert, normally slept. She went to the sleepout to see what he had been doing there, as she thought her sons might have had a bottle of liquor. She did not see her son in the sleepout before he walked out down the front steps. Later that evening Paul Gibson (a previous witness) arrived and asked if her son was home. Her son then came to the bedroom door in his pyjamas. “Paul Gibson said: ‘Christ, I thought you’d shot a cop’,” said the witness. She thought Gibson was drunk and "left them to it.” The next morning, when her son got up she saw that he was distressed. She asked him to tell her what was troubling him but he said he could not tell her. He then left the house.

A Christchurch detective, John Alan William Boerlase, gave evidence of being stationed near the police station door on the morning after the shooting, when the accused approached him and asked to speak to Sergeant Wheeler. The accused told the witness he had done the shooting. The accused was then taken to a side room, and Sergeant Wheeler spoke to him.

Sergeant John Reginald Wheeler said the accused told him at the police station: “I shot the policeman last night, Jack. I’m the one you’re looking for, and I don’t know why I done it.”

Cross-examined on the accused’s demeanour, Sergeant Wheeler said the accused was very sorry for himself. He was concerned about the condition of the constable. STATEMENT TAKEN

Detective-Sergeant John Graham Scott, of Ashburton, produced a statement allegedly made by McKenzie on the morning after the shooting. The statement said that after McKenzie had travelled back to Ashburton in the car he asked to go home, because he had a headache. When nearly home he said, jokingly, that he might shoot a policeman. The others laughed at him and he “just about laughed, too,” as he was not serious.

He walked into his bedroom and took four cartridges. Everything was going through his mind. At one minute he thought of calling at the police station with the

gun, and next he thought: “What the hell am I doing.” He took the shotgun from his brother’s room. He did not remember exactly what he was going to do.

He assembled the gun and loaded it, and entered the police station. When the constabled moved to the counter he levelled the gun at him.

“I did not speak to him. I did not know what I was going to do. I just pulled the trigger. I just looked at the constable, and then there was a thud and he just hit the floor.

“I don’t know why I done it," he said. He panicked, and ran off.

On arrival home he replaced the gun and the cartridges not fired. He could not sleep. Until Paul Gibson called the next morning he thought he might have killed a policeman. He read an account of the shooting in the morning newspaper, and decided to go to the police station. He did not know why he had shot the policeman. He had no grudge against the police, and was very sorry for what he had done. In cross-examination, Detective Sergeant Scott said McKenzie became upset at times, and began crying. He waited at these times until McKenzie had settled down again. “The thing that upset him was that he did not know why he had shot Constable Nolan. He appeared pleased to get it off his chest.”