Man shot by rifle at 30ft

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 34021, 10 December 1975, Page 3

Man shot by rifle at 30ft

The person who shot and wounded a 32-year-old Christchurch burner attendant, Mr Raymond Ceorge Mulligan. early yesterday morning, was apparently only 30ft from him.

Detectives with the iChristchurch Criminal I Investigation Branch found three cartridges from a .22-calibre rifle .lying not far from each (other, about 30ft from where Mr Mulligan was 'shot in the face. * I The police have not yet I found the person who fired [the shot, and from his hospital bed the wounded Mr Mulligan was unable to he!.' with | his identification. I His face half hidden in

bandages, he said yesterday that he had no chance to see! the sniper. He had been enjoying a smoke in the j smoko room at 1.45 a.m. (when he heard a noise in the, (factory that sounded “tool heavy for a cat.” He left the room to check ; lit, saw nothing, and was' returning when he heard a shot, which he did not recognise as a rifle shot. Simul-( taneously he felt what seemed, Jike “a piece of steel crack' my face.” He reeled under the I it..pact, and stumbled towards a telephone 30ft away to ring for help. The switchboard had not connected the extension for night service, however, and he could not ring out. As he was at the booth, he heard a second shot. "All I could think was. ‘Someone’s after me’,” Mr Mulligan said. “I went for my life.” He ran about 100 yards toi the nearest exit, and there! heard the third shot. Outside the exit was a gate; in the boundary fence, at ■ which he fumbled in his panic. He then ran more than--100 yards to the railway yards. “I knew there would be be someone there, because there always is,” Mr Mulligan said. “I told him that I had been attacked, and to get the police.” The Armed Offenders Squad and an ambulance arrived and Mr Mulligan was taken to the accident and !emergency ward at ChristIchurch Hospital. He was (transferred to Burwood Hospital and admitted at about 4.30 a.m. yesterday morning. There had been no surgery at 4 p.m. yesterday. Splinters iweiv still embedded in the I wound, but these should pose no difficulty, the ward sister I (Mr K. Orr) said yesterday. (The bullet, shot from a .22calibre rifle, entered through (the right nostril, smashing his (dentures, and passed out (through the left jaw, breaking 'it. Mr Orr would not say, (when or if there w.uld be. surgery. Mr Mulligan was in( la fairly comfortable condition' land would be under observation for a while. No discharge; date was given. A spokesman for the firm,! the Austin Chalk Company,' |Ltd, on whose premises Mr' (Mulligan was shot, said that: iit was only common sense to • presume that the person who • fired the shot had entered the • building while it was open, hidden until it was closed, • and remained out of sight. It was highly unlikely that he had entered after closing) time, as the building was securely locked, but there was) no knowing, he said. Mr Mulligan was the only employee on the premises at, the time. He was just more than half-way through a 13L! hour shift, which he had! begun at. 5 p.m. The building' Iwas locked at 4.45 p.m.