POLICE HELD AT BAY

Evening Star, Issue 20584, 9 September 1930, Page 12

POLICE HELD AT BAY

TWO HEM SHOT IN A VILLAGE Au extraordinary scene in the village at Uley, near Dursloy, Gloucestershire, when an old man with a double-barrelled gun deHeld 400 villagers for over an hour-, while a dead man’s body lay at his feet, had a sequel at Dursley Police Court, when John Dolbear (seventy-nine) was remanded for a week, accused of murdering William Henry Hill (forty-seven), a foreman mechanic and small holder. Hill was shot dead, and his companion, Charles Pilcher, was wounded. When the police asked for an immediate remand Dolbear exclaimed: "Do you want me to say what I did it for?” “ No._ Don't say anything now,” replied tho magistrate. The tragedy was first seen by Mrs Hill, wife of the shot man. Her husband and Pitcher had just left the house to do some fencing, when she heard three quick shots. Hill clutched his face and collap=ed, while Pitcher staggered into tho ditch with a gr 03.11. It was more than hour before tho police, by a ruse, were able to recover Hill’s body. When they arrived they found themselves threatened by the old man with the gun. The police eventually retired to the back of a cottage ou the knoll, and the crowd kept shouting to tho man with tho gun while the officers crept foot by foot up tho garden where ho stood. Two of them suddenly made a spring, threw the man down, and wrenched away his gun. As lie was being taken away by tbo police tho crowd cried “Kill him I” and “ Lynch him!” and began to throw stones. Tho police had to close in to protect him from violence.