SHOT BOY DISPUTE

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33213, 1 May 1973, Page 13

SHOT BOY DISPUTE

‘Charge made hastily’ (N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) NEW YORK, April 30. There is a dispute over the shooting on Saturday of a boy, aged 10, by a New York policeman. The acting district attoriney, Mr Frederick Ludwig, who says that an assistant 'acted hastily in charging the patrolman with the murder of the boy, told 60 demonstrators from the Patrolmens’ Benevolent Association that the case should have been 'referred to a grand jury beifore any arrest was made. The patrolman, Thomas Shea, has been released on $U525,000 bail.

Both the P.B.A. and the Police Commissioner (Mr Donald Cawley) have been sharply critical of Shea’s immediate arrest, and of the description of the killing as murder by the assistant district attorney concerned. I Mr Ludwig told the P.B.A. idemonstrators that he would 'have Shea released, and 'would present to a grand jury a charge of criminallyi negligent homicide (for I which the maximum penalty lis four year? imprisonment).