STRANGE AFFAIR

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 189, 12 May 1928, Page 10

STRANGE AFFAIR

GUNSHOTS AND BROKEN WINDOWS

TWO MEN IN HOSPITAL BY Telegraph.—Press Association Timaru, May 11. A sensational affray occurred ‘it Otaio in the early hours of this morning. It appears that Bernard Lewis Blackwell and Ernest McCunq, potato diggers, journeyed with their employer to the house of a man named Ancell, where it is alleged the visitors forced an entrance by breaking down the door. Mrs. Ancell, in night attire, made investigations and found Blakwell in the bedroom of ber eighteen-year-old son. She ordered him out but he declined to go, and it is alleged he struck the woman and her son. Mrs. Ancell then secured a shotgun which she gave her son. Blackwell appealed for assistance to McCunn, and after an interval both visitors, left the house. Blackwell threatened to return and the youth fired a shot in the air. Blackwell then went to the house of Robert Barr, brother-in-law of Mrs. Ancell, close by, where it is alleged Blackwell shattered some windows and threatened to murder Barr. Blackwell entered Barr’s house and w’hen ordered out made threats, and Barr hit the intruder over the head with a shovel. Blackwell then retreated but returned and broke another window. At this stage young Ancell fired a shot at each man, hitting one in the leg and the other in the body. The men were then brought to the police station at St. Andrews, and later to Timaru, where both are now in the hospital. The injuries are not regarded as serious.

The cause of the disturbance has not been disclosed.