WHAKATANE SHOOTING: INQUEST COMPLETED: WOUNDED MAN’S EVIDENCE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22916, 7 April 1949, Page 4

WHAKATANE SHOOTING: INQUEST COMPLETED: WOUNDED MAN’S EVIDENCE

Evidence which conclusively connected the deaths of John Ivelioe, a Transport Department traffic officer, and Richard Angus McGill, a youthful farm labourer, was heard at the resumption of the inquests associated with the Whakatane shooting which shocked the whole community two months ago. The inquests were completed on Tuesday in Whakatane before the deputy-coroner, Mr. C. S. Armstrong, the verdicts being:—

* “That John Kehoe died at Poroporo on January 31, 1949. from a gunshot wound from a .38 calibre bullet.’’ and “That Richard Angus McKill died at Whakatane West on February 1, 1949, from a gunshot wound in the head, self-inflicted.” Death Was Instantaneous Medical evidence indicated that death was instantaneous in both cases, the bullet which struck Mr. Kehoe having penetrated the heart centrally. Senior-Sergeant Kelly, officer in charge of the arms bureau at Wellington police headquarters, stated that both this bullet and the bullet which wounded Arthur William Godfrey Wiggins were fired from the Smith and Wesson .33 revolver found upon the body of McGill, this assertion being supported by the results of microscopic investigation of the bullets and of the rifling of the revolver. The bullet recovered from Mr. Wiggins’ body had entered the left breast, and had glanced off a ribbone, travelling in a quarter-circle to the left and then emerging, to embed itself in Mr. Wiggins' arm near the elbow.

Fired Without Hesitation

Mr- Wiggins’ evidence bearing upon the death of the traffic officer was to the effect that while in his home, near which the shooting occurred, he had heard suspicious sounds in the roadway and had gone to investigate. He found Mr. Kehoe’s body lying upon the roadway and noted his car a short distance away. A man was standing by the car. and when Mr. Wiggins "approached him the stranger raised his arm and aimed a revolver at him. His instinctive recoil from this threat probably saved Mr. Wiggins’ life, as the man fired without hesitation and with extreme accuracy. The very brief opportunity of studying him left Mr. Wiggins with a clear impression of the stranger’s dress and general appearance which would have enabled him to identify him again: but he had had no previous contact with McGill and did not know him by name. '• Mr. Wiggins was in hospital when the body of McGill was discovered on February 5, at Whakatane West, and he was not called upon to identify the body as that of the stranger who had fired the shots in the roadway in front of Mr. Wiggins’ home. The witness was fully restored in health, when giving evidence. Detective-Sergeant R. H. Waterson, of Gisborne district police headquarters, represented the police at the inquest.