POLICEMAN SHOOTS COMRADE

Taranaki Daily News, 19 January 1935, Page 15 (Supplement)

POLICEMAN SHOOTS COMRADE

Confesses To Firing Twice In Quarrel

A BOUT 14 hours -after Patrolman William J. Shehan, of the New York police, had been shot near the West Forty-seventh Street station, to which he was attached, Patrolman John M. Halloran of the Ozone Park, Queens, station, surrendered to his superior officers and announced that he was the assailant. Halloran walked into the West Twentieth Street station and was brought to the West Forty-seventh Street station for questioning by Inspector. Francis J. Kear, in charge of Manhattan detectives, He was later charged with felonious assault. The police also questioned a young woman, Ruth M. Leon of 326 West Forty-seventh Street, described as a professional violinist. * Witnesses had declared she resembled a woman whose escort had fired two shots in an altercation with Patrolman Shehan, who has been attached to the. West Forty-seventh Street station for four years. Assistant District Attorney W. F, O’Rourke said Halloran was escorting her home at the time. Shehan was taken to Flower Hospital, where physicians said he would recover. Detectives said he had beep unable to give them any helpful information and that he had said that he did not recall ever having seen Miss Leon, who was taken to his bedside in the afternoon.

The patrolman appeared at the West Forty-seventh Street station, chatted for a moment with Lieutenant James Grealis, on desk duty, and left. Shortly afterward the policemen inside heard shots and ran out. Shehan was lying on the. sidewalk, but his assailant had vanished.

Patrolman Shehan, 34 years old, lives at 552 Rosedale Avenue, the Bronx. He is married. He was appointed to the police force in 1929. He has a clear record and received a citation in 1932 for the capture of four hold-up men. Halloran was appointed to the force in 1930. He is 27 years old, and single.