AND GETS AWAY AGAIN.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LVII, Issue LVII, 11 April 1910, Page 5

AND GETS AWAY AGAIN.

SERGEANPS INJURIES SERIOUS,

[PTTERP .ASSOCIATION.^ WELLINGTON, April 11> Last night was one of intense excitement at Palmerston. The police, after many false alarms, got into grips with Powelka, Sergeant Maguire being badly wounded by the escaped desperado. The Sergeant now lies in Palmerston Hospital. Powelka again escaped. The police had received- information from Mr Hampton, the manager of Banks' butchery, of suspicions circumstances at his residence in Ferguson street, a wire being stretched across the pathway close to the ground, obviously as a trap to trip someone up. Last night he heard a man had jumped the fence into his garden, aaid he immediately supplied information to the police. , . As a result, Sergeant Maguire, Detectives Quartermain and Siddells, and a constable, all armed, surrounded the house. The night was pitch dark. Sergeant Maguire went round the side of the house and confronted a man, whom he recognised as Powelka. Maguire gripped his man, and a desperate Struggle ensued. Powelka, who was evidently determined to evade capture at all costs, wrestled violently to break away. As ' they fought they fell to the ground, and Powelka then shot his captor in the stomach. The unfortunate officer must have released his hold, for, when the other members of the force closed up, Powelka had escaped. Detective Quartermain, who was first to arrive, sent two shots after the fugitive, apparently without effect. Sergeant Maguire was taken to the hospital. It is feared he is badly hurt. Palmerston is now 'thoroughly aroused. . Civilians turned out m scores at 2 a.m., and the whole block in which Powelka is supposed to be hiding was surrounded, waiting for daylight to continue the search.