SPECIAL INQUIRY

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 130, 3 June 1936, Page 9

SPECIAL INQUIRY

WOUNDING OP POLICE SUPERINTENDENT MELBOURNE, June 2. The Victorian Government has decided to appoint a Royal Commission to inquire into the wounding of Superintendent Brophy, chief of the Criminal Investigation Branch,.on May 22, which has been the subject of conflicting police reports.

The scope of the commission has been extended to cover other aspects of police affairs. A judge of the County Court will be president of the commission.

Superintendent John O'Connell Brophy was shot in the face and the right arm in some mysterious manner. The Police Department was at first exceedingly reticent. A Police Press Bureau official declared that Mr. Brophy was accidentally shot in the right arm while handling his own pistol at police headquarters. Newspaper reporters, who were banned at the detective office ascertained, however, that Mr. Brophy was shot by a hold-up gang who mistook him for a prominent Melbourne bookmaker who habitually carries a large sum of money. Subsequently an official police statement declared that Mr. Brophy tried to catch some car bandits, and was himself held up by two armed men, who apparently recognised him, and fired three 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. Another broke his right wrist, and a third was deflected from his heart by the buckle of his braces.