MERELY BRAVADO

Stratford Evening Post, Volume I, Issue 84, 18 March 1931, Page 5

MERELY BRAVADO

SHOTS FIRED HOODLUMS’ NIGHT OUT Sydney. Police laughed at the suggestion that a clash between rival gangs intent on exacting vengeance over the arrest of two men was responsible for a wild, shooting episode at the corner of Riley and Foveaux Streets, Surrey Hlllls. Their inquiries showed that the incident was a display of bravado on the part of half a dozen Wodlloomooloo hoodlums. Late in the night these youths, who had been drinking, drove up in a taxi to the intersection, and, seeing * two men talking ~oli the 1 footpath, they left the taxi and started to argue with them. Without warning, a member of the mob hit one of the two men and felled him, at the same time as a group of local residents, hearing the commotion, walked across the street to see what was happening. Thinking reinforcements were ar- • riving, the mob took to their heels, and as they ran one of them pulled a revolver from his pocket and fired Seven shots into the air to frighten off pursuit. It is believed that only blank cartridges were used. Later the man who had been hit was taken tp Sydney Hospital, but was allowed to leave after a scalp wound had been dressed. He said had been hit with a bottle.