CLAIM BY POLICE

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 216, 9 June 1936, Page 9

CLAIM BY POLICE

Two Crimes Connected

Sydney, June 8.

There was a startling turn at the week-end to the shooting of Superintendent Brophy, when, as a result of inquiries, the police claim to have established that a man involved in the shooting was also one of the bandits who stole a pay-roll at North Fitzroy.

On May 24 a message from Melbourne reported that Superintendent John O’Connell Brophy, who began duty as chief of the Victorian Criminal Investigation branch a week previously, was shot in the face and the right arm. An official police statement declared that Mr. Brophy went to Royal Park to try to catch some car bandits who had been operating in that locality, and was himself held up by two armed men who apparently recognised him and fired the shots before Mr. Brophy could manipulate his own revolver, which jammed. One bullet passed through Mr. Brophy’s lower jaw,-just missing a vital artery, and emerged at the back of his neck. other broke his right wrist, and a third was deflected from his heart by the buckle of his braces. On June 4 three armed men held up employees of Goold and Porter, Ltd, boot manufacturers, at North Fitzroy, and robbed them of a pay-roll of £l4OO. Ine money was being brought from the bank in a delivery van when, within 200 yards o£ the factory, three masked men m another car forced the van in to the kerb, where they compelled the employees to hand over' the money. The bandits then disappeared in heavy traffic. The affair was witnessed by a pedestrian, who described it as one of the neatest and quietest of “jobs.” The factory employees were armed. '