POLICE TRAP

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 55, 2 September 1944, Page 8

POLICE TRAP

AN ARMED CHASE

RECAPTURE OF PRISONER P.A. CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. _ Alfred Hicks Howell, who escaped from the Paparua Prison, was recaptured today near the Waimakariri i Gorge bridge. ' . Fleeing in a car from the police | party, he abandoned the vehicle when revolver shots were aimed at the tyres and gave himself up after a brief , sprint. He had been at large since ■ Monday night. Thomas Hedley Stocker, t with whom he escaped, is still at large. Constable J. R. Barwick and Warder [ Hey wood had waited at the bridge (for some hours. Just before 7 o'clock they saw a small car approaching. I Their own car was parked some distance away. The approaching vehicle stopped about half a mile from the bridge and the driver got out and looked hard in their direction. He returned to the car, fumed about, and speeded back along the road. Mr. Lou Jenkins, a farmer, who was working among his sheep in a neighbouring paddock, offered the use of his car' to the constable and warder. Mr. Jenkins drove, and the chase was on. After about three miles the police party passed the other car and stopped. Constable Barwick got out on the road ! and signalled the motorist to halt. He refused ; and the chase was resumed. Constable Barwick was armed with a revolver, and as other methods failed to make the other car stop, he fired five shots at the tyres. The car ahead seemed to wobble, all over the road and then pulled up. Howell clambered out and ran for about thirty yards with the constable and warder in pursuit. Sensing that further efforts to get away were useless he stopped, threw up his hands, and announced that he would give in. He told the constable he was glad it was all over, and. nodding towards the constable with the revolver, said: "You can put that away. You won't need it." . Howell complained to his captors that the car he was driving would not attain a speed over 24 miles an hour. The prisoner was brought to Christchurch under escort. .