SINGULAR SHOOTING AFFAIR.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1199, 22 February 1895, Page 21

SINGULAR SHOOTING AFFAIR.

A YOUNG MAN SERIOUSLY INJURED. HE SAYS HE WAS SHOT BY A HOUSEBREAKER. Great excitement prevailed in Elizabeth street and the neighbourhood on Monday evening when it became known that a young man named Samuel Shutler, about 18 years of age, had been shot by some person who, it is alleged, was in the house for the purposes of theft. The injured man lives "with his mother in Elizabeth street, and is employed in looking after some sample rooms at a warehouse in Harris street. Mrs Shutler has been out of town lately, and he and another young man have been bachelOrising on the premises. ,"i Shutler, according to his own statement made to the police, went home shortly after 5 o'clock, and on entering noticed that his . bedroom window had been pushed up. He unlocked the. kitchen door and saw the drawer of the.table,.,had been pulled out, and that a half-sovereign was lying on the table. Ongoing intohis,bedroom, which is on the. ground, floor at the back of the house, he saw a man behind the door. The intruder, without saying anything, drew a revolver. and fired a shot at him, which missed. Shutler tried to get past the man so as.to make his way into the diningroom, when the man fired another shot, the

bullet entering his left leg just below the knee. The man fired another shot, which missed, and then went out of the kitchen door, down the garden and over the fence in the direction of Queen street. Shutler made another statement to the effect that there were two men in the room when he entered it. As a matter of fact the affair is shrouded in considerable mystery. The house is situated in a very crowded locality, and the garden down which the man's assailant is said to have gone is in full view of

the people living in the adjoining premises. A young woman who lives next door states that while in her garden she heard a shot fired in Shutler's house, and looked over the fence in the direction of the back door to see what was the matter. She states positively that over five minutes elapsed before the second shot was fired, and the second was followed almost immediately by a third. Other people who heard the reports also concur in saying that there was a. considerable interval between tho firing of the first and second shot. Again no cries were heard, and no one has yet been found who saw a man going down Shutler's garden, although several were at their windows and doors, and the young woman who was in the next garden declares positively that no one left the house by the back door after the last shot was fired. He could scarcely Have escaped by the front door without being seen, as tho neighbourhood is thickly populated, and the streets were full of people at that hour. The bedroom in which the firing is supposed to have occurred presents the appearance of having been entered for the purposes of robbery, as the contents of a chest of drawers are all tumbled about, and Shutler states that the sum of «£3 is missing. As soon as it was found that Shutler had been shot, the police were communicated with, and' Inspector Pender, SergeantMajor Ramsay, Chief-Detective Campbell and others were quickly on the spot. Their investigations showed that there were no bullet marks in the bedroom, and, what seems still more strange, there were no marks of blood there either. Blood was found outside the house, at the back, the greatest portion being •in a shed which is used as a wash-house. It was near this

shed that, after some search, Detective Campbell found a revolver, chree of the chambers of which contained empty cartridges, the other two chambers being loaded. The fence at the bottom of the garden was also examined, but no marks such as would be made by a person climb- ■ ing over it were found. • Shutler was removed to the Hospital as ' soon as possible, and on examination Dr ' Ewart found that the bullet had lodged in ! the left leg about three inches below the ] knee on the inside of the leg, the bono * ]

being 1 badly shattered. His condition is reported to be rather critical. Later. The young man Schulter is still in the Hospital, and is reported to be progressing very favourably. On Tuesday morning ChiefDetective Campbell made a further search of tlu house in Elizabeth street, and in the kitchen found a bullet, which had evidently come from the same revolver with which the injury to the young man's leg was inflicted. Two out of the three shots fired are thus accounted for. Detective Campbell also discovered that a young man answering to the description of Schulter purchased a revolver similar to the one found near the wasb-house, and a box of cartridges, at Messrs Cameron and Christie's on the day the shooting took place. Nothing beyond the sum of <£3 already mentioned is missing from the premises.