BANDIT ADMITS SHOOTING VICTIM.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 27 June 1933, Page 5

BANDIT ADMITS SHOOTING VICTIM.

* EXONERATES MATE FROM BLAME. V■ J SENSATIONAL SEQUEL TO HOLD-UP. Received Monday, 10.30 p.m. ■; SYDNEY, June 26. ' Considerable interest is being taken in the inquest into the death of John Rowland, who was shot dead by motor bandits when returning form a Masonic meeting on May 15. The detectives were set a most difficult, task as nobody .saw the occurrence though they heard the cries of distress at midnight at IBondi near the victim’s home. The recovery of the revolver, however, gave the police the first clue and later two men were arrested in sensational circumstances when speeding .along the Parramatta road, the police •car finally overtaking them. Evidence was heard before the coronbr to-day when Claude Wallace, aged f!4, and Eric Newlyn, aged 26, were •charged -frith Rowland’s murder. Detective Mcßae produced a state- , >iaent in which Wallace admitted having •shot .Rowland wljo refused to hand •over his money, told him to go to the •devil and attacked him with a suitcase. Wallace said he did not intend to shoot but inadvertently pressed the trigger, being unaware that the safety catch • was released. He declared Newlyn was •jD.ot connected with the shooting and remained at the wheel of the car the whole time. ’ The inquiry was adjourned. COLD-BLOODED SHOOTING. The shooting of Mr John Rowlands an Sydney last month caused a sensa■tion in a city where miirder is rapidly a commonplace. Mr Rowlands had been attending a Masonic Lodge meeting at OBondi, and was walking home when a powerful car passed him. The driver turned and the car eame back, and pulled up alongside him. Leaning out of the car, one of fhe two occupants pointed a revolver at him and curtly ordered Mm' to hand over his money. “Go to the devil,” Rowlands replied, and swung the ease he was carrying at the bandit’s face “Give him one,” said a voice from inside the car, and immediately thb other fired from a range of one foot. Rowlands fell to the ground, with Tdood gushing from his mouth. Mis Stubbles, who lives directly opposite the scene of the shooting at the top of a steep rise in Old South Head-road heard the shot and went out on to the verandah. The car was .moving down the street at a great •pace. The injured man was lying on the opposite side of, the road, calling dror help. Detective-Sergeant Mcßae, Detective Dawson and the Eastern Suburbs -wireless patrol were on the spot in a few minutes, and in the moments before the ambulance arrived, Mcßae ' knelt down by the wounded man; but for the time Rowlands was beyond speech. Later, however, he rallied and was able to give the detectives a brief .account of the shooting, but only a vague description of his assailant. ■ There was a pathetic scene at St. Vincent’s Hospital when Mrs Rowlands arrived to see her husband. She was not told he had been shot until • one of the Sisters took her aside just , before she entered the ward. ’ Mr Rowlands died four days later, i . The car suspected of having been ;nsed was a green Chrysler tourer, with side blinds down, a spare wheel on the back, black mudguards and yellow rwheelp. Earlier in the evening it is of having been used in a ihold-up at Strathfield.