POLICE CHIEF SHOT.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume IV, Issue 139, 25 May 1936, Page 7

POLICE CHIEF SHOT.

Outrage Perpetrated By Melbourne Bandits. BULLET THROUGH JAW. Press Association— Copyright. Melbourne, May 24. Superintendent John O’Connell Brophy, who began duty as chief of the Victorian criminal investigation branch a week ago, was shot in three places on Friday night. He is not in a serious condition. The Police Department was at first extremely reticent. A police Press bureau official in a statement declared that Superintendent Brophy was accidentally shot in the right arm while handling his own pistol at police headquarters. Newspaper reporters, who were banned at the detective office, ascertained that Superintendent Brophy was shot by a hold-up gang who mistook him for a prominent Melbourne bookmaker, who habitually carries a large sum of money and lives in the suburb of Parkeville.

An official police statement later declared that Superintendent Brophy went to Royal Park on Friday night to try to catch car., bandits who wore operating in that locality. He was himself held up by two armed men who apparently recognised him and fired three shots before Superintendent Broph. could manipulate his own revolver, which jammed. One bullet passed through Superintendent Brophy’s lower jaw, just missed a vital artery and emerged at the back of his neck, another broke his right wrist and a third was deflected from his heart by a braces buckle.