SHOOTING AFFRAY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1682, 25 May 1904, Page 59

SHOOTING AFFRAY.

A MAN’S DYING DEPOSITIONS TAKEN. ARREST BY THE POLICE. A lamp-trimmer on the steamer Kiripaka, by name Charles Robertson, was admitted to Wellington' Hospital on Sunday afternoon suffering. from a wound in the abdoifien caused by a revolver bullet. Robertson was taken to the hospital from the house of Mrs Barr, in Chorlton avenue, off Tory street. The man was in a precarious state when admitted, and the house surgeon (Dr Ewart) at once telephoned to the Mount Cook police about' the case. Robertson alleged he had been shot by a man employed on ships in the harbour. During the afternoon, Inspector Ellison and Chief-Detective McGrath arrested James Barr (at the Otago Buffet, opposite the Lambton quay police station) on a charge of the attempted murder of Robertson. Meanwhile the condition of Robertson had become decidedly critical, and the medical attendant advised that his depositions be taken. Dr McArthur, SUM., attended by the Clerk of the Court, went up to the hospital late in the afternoon, and sat in his'judicial capacity. Barr was present, and he wag represented by counsel (Mr Herdman). The depositions given by Robertson set. out that he, when in Wellington, lodged with Mrs Ban-, wife of the man under arrest. Oh Saturday last he left his steamer (the Kiripaka) at the patent slip, at about noon to go to Mrs Barr’s. He went straight there, and

stopped at tlier house until 6 p.m., when he went to town, returning to Mrs Barr’s about a quarter to 8. Soon afterwards he sat at the table and began to read a paper. Mrs Barr had gone out to the ibutcher’s. A little after 8 o’clock, Barr entered by the back door, seized him from behind, and fired a shot at him that missed its object. Then Robertson struck Barr with his fist in tlie face, after which the pair struggled, Robertson finally getting Barr down, grasping his pistol arm and pinning it to the floor, with a view to' getting the weapon away. He did not succeed in grasping the weapon, and then a second shot was fired by Barr. There were no words spoken then, other than a- remark by Robeutson, “You have got oiie on to me!” Robertson felt he had been hit in the groin. He then gripped the revolver, dragged it from Barr, and threw it across the room. At this point a neighbouring resident (one Mrs Coyne) entered tlie room and called upon them, saying, “For God’s sake, stop!” Robertson estimates that . the scuffle continued for some time, say two to five minutes. They separated when Mrs Coyne came in. Robertson next stated that he went for the police. He went to the Lambton quay station, but lie did not tell the police he had been hit—only that somone had fired two shots at him. Then he went to Mount Cook- station and intimated that two shots had been fired at him, but again lie did not say he had been hit. After _ this, Robertson returned to the bouse and found that Barr had gone. He began to feel pain, and, lie says, rapidly got worse and worse.

During Saturday night Dr McLean was called in to attend Robertson, and again on Sunday afternoon, on which occasion he ordered the man’s immediate removal to the hospital. The revolver—alleged to have been used by Barr—given up to the police by Mrs Barr is a very small nickel-plat-ed weapon. It has six chambers, three of which had been recently discharged. Acording to the evidence of Robertson, two shots were fired. Mrs Barr states that a third shot was fired accidentally when the revolver was being examined subsequent to the struggle.