POLICE BESIEGE GUN-MEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 May 1931, Page 7

POLICE BESIEGE GUN-MEN

MELODRAMA IN NEW YORK FREE SHOW FOR CROWD ' ■ '■ ‘ : . ■■■■ <■ V " [BY CABLE—PBESS ASSN.—COPYEIGHT.] ——— NEW YORK, May 8. Terrified residents in a fashionable section of the city to-night witnessed scenes worthy of the most melodramatic cinema, when detectives, upon searching an apartment, discovered the youthful desperado who killed a policeman and the dance hall girl. He is Francis “Two-Gun” Crowley. He was found in a flat with a young girl and also a second man, who was wanted for murdering a woman. The two criminals shot at the detectives through the wall. The detectives sent a “riot call,” and 250 policemen, including eight special' gun squads, dramatically rushed to the scene. They formed a circle round the building. They posted riot guns, machine guns, rifles, revolvers, and gas bombs on the roof-tops, and in the windows, and proceeded to lay a siege. The Criminals fought desperately for two hours'. They surrendered only-whbn~ theirammunition was exhausted. Crowley was shot four times.- The chief casualty among the police was Commissioner Mulrooney, who was accidentally gassed, but only slightly. The noise from the miniature war drew spectators from a wide area. The assembled automobiles were jammed hopelessly, and a “No Man’s Land”

was formed at the intersection of the main traffic arteries. Upon the appearance of the home-bound “rush-hour” crowds, the -congestion presented an extraordinary scene, as the persons who were fleeing from the shots met those who were rushing to investigate the uproar.