Wounded man arrested

Press, 21 October 1980, Page 1

Wounded man arrested

Detectives yesterday arrested a man who is being treated at Princess Margaret Hospital for a severe shotgun wound. He will appear in the District Court in Christchurch charged with the aggravated robbery last Friday of the Manurewa South Post Office, • in which a boy. aged 15, was shot A Wellington woman was also arrested in Christchurch yesterday, and charged with receiving money from the proceeds ' of a robbery. She

will appear in the District Court today. The man, aged 25. an unemployed workman, is now considered by doctors to be out of danger. He went to Wellington Hospital on Saturday, the day after the Auckland robbery, but was flown to Christchurch for special oxygen treatment after gas gangrene was - diagnosed. His left arm was amputated below the elbow on Sunday, and he is undergoing two two-hourly sessions each day in the recompression chamber at

Princess Margaret Hospital. The man was well enough yesterday to be interviewed by two South Auckland detectives. He was arrested, but it is not known when he will be fit enough to appear in court. A second man, aged 32. appeared in the District Court at Otahuhu yesterday charged with the aggravated robbery of the post office, and with unlawfully getting into a car. He was remanded without plea to Thursday. The officer in charge of the case (Detective Chief

Inspector B. N. Middleton) said from Auckland yesterday that an extensive police hunt was under way for the third robber. “We believe we know who he is. It is now a matter of finding him.” said Mr Middleton. He was believed to be in Wellington or the lower pan of the North Island. The boy who was wounded in the robbery, Stephen Mills, is now in a satisfactory condition in Middlemore Hospital with a shotgun wound to the right armpit.