A CONSTABLE SHOT

New Zealand Times, Volume XLI, Issue 9256, 25 January 1916, Page 5

A CONSTABLE SHOT

THE MURDERER HANGED RAID ON. THE MELBOURNE TRADES HALL. By Telegraph—Press Association— Oopyrleb* (Received January 24, 10.15 p.m.) ' MELBOURNE. January 24. John Jackson, convicted of murdering Constable David McGrath at the Trades - Hall, in Victoria street, on tho morning of October Ist last, was executed at the Melbourne Gaol today. Death was instantaneous. [Constable McGrath was a married man, forty-two years of age, with a family, and had a. most exciting encounter with three burglars at tho Trades Hal l * in company with Senior Constable Dent and. Sub-Inspector McKenna. When the burglars were discovered on tho promises, the three police officers forced their way through a window, and were met with a fusillade of shots in a dark passage. 1 Tho three burglars were .builders’ labourers,- and two were wounded by tho police in the, fray, Jackson being shot in the thigh and ankle. In the encounter Constable McGrath was shot fatally by Jacjrson. but other police arriving on the scene the three men were arrested.: When being taken to_ the hospital Jackson was asked who fifed first, the police or the prisoners. , "They fired the first shot," said Jackson, “and - when a man is fired at he J must fire back. I don’t know whether I hit him, but I must have shot him.”}