Victim may have been seeking aid

Press, 2 April 1985, Page 1

Victim may have been seeking aid

The gang associate who was shot dead in Ferry Road on Sunday evening might have been going to a telephone box to call for help for a wounded friend, the police said yesterday. The dead man was Graeme David Innes, aged 23, of Christchurch. The man heading the homicide inquiry, Detective Inspector Jim Millar, said yesterday that the police were following “promising leads” into the shooting. “We have some pretty positive lines of inquiry and I am quite hopeful that we will be able to see a result soon," he said. The gang killing appeared unrelated to the fatal stabbing of a woman in a United Service Hotel bar last week, said Mr Millar. The shootings on Sunday did, however, seem to be the result of problems between gangs. The body of Mr Innes, who was an associate of the Devil’s Henchmen MotorCycle Club, was found in a pool of blood in Ferry Road, about 300 m east of the gang’s headquarters. Another gang associate, Royce John Bartram, aged 23, was found slumped at the end of the gang’s driveway with gunshot wounds to the hand..

Mr Bartram underwent surgery at Burwood Hospital yesterday afternoon. His condition was not available last evening. Mr Millar said both men suffered wounds consistent with a shotgun blast. “We think that the second person (Mr Innes) may have been shot while he was going along Ferry Road to a telephone box to ring for an ambulance for the first man (Mr Bartram),” he said. The gang headquarters apparently had no telephone and the nearest telephone box is at the corner of Ferry Road and Hargood Street. Detectives have discovered evidence indicating that Mr Bartram was shot outside the Highway 61 gang headquarters, in Worcester Street near Linwood Avenue. He then travelled along Worcester Street, turned left into Linwood Avenue, right into Tilford Street, and left into Ferry Road to reach the Devil’s Henchmen headquarters. He was probably the only person on an English motorcycle and might well have been followed by a lightcoloured, early-model car. Mr Millar has appealed for anybody who might have seen the motor-cycle or the car, between about 9.55 p.m. and 10.05 p.m., to get in touch with the police. Asked what the man was

doing outside the headquarters of the Highway 61 gang, Mr Millar said that he did not know. The police yesterday searched the premises of the Highway 61 headquarters. Some electrical goods were taken from the house but no weapons apparently were found. As part of the inquiry, detectives cordoned an area outside the gang headquarters and examined the roadway closely. A scene search also continued at the spot where the body of Mr Innes was found. The police went there on Sunday evening after neighbours reported hearing a shot. Mr Millar said that, in addition, the police yesterday had spoken to gang members. The police had struck no problems in that regard and the gang members were being as helpful as they could, he said. Detectives today will continue area inquiries and follow up information from the public. Two years ago a member of the Highway 61 gang was shot dead and another injured after an attack on the gang’s headquarters. Six members of the Devil’s Henchmen gang were arrested. Mr Millar said there was no connection yet between that shooting and the one on Sunday evening.