FOUR SHOT DEAD.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20221, 3 February 1934, Page 15

FOUR SHOT DEAD.

P dice Kill Communist “ Escapees.” STORY FROM GERMANY. United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. (Received February 3, 2.10 p.m.) BERLIN, February 2. Following their escape from a police van proceeding to Potsdam from Berlin, four well-known Communists were shot dead, including Johan Scheer, successor to Dr Thaelmann in the leadership of the Communists. The quartette, though in a concentration camp when the crime was committed, were allegedly involved in the murder of a carpenter named Alfred Kattnew, who was found shot in bed yesterday morning. The actual murderer is unknown, but it is asserted that the quartette conspired with him to cause Kattnew’s death. It is officially reported that when the van was slowing down on an icy patch of the road, the prisoners jumped out. The police pursued the fugitives, who, although unarmed, attacked the police, who were armed with rifles, revolvers, daggers and batons, injuring one policeman in the face. The quartette were promptly shot. Kattnew would have been an important witness in a charge of high treason against Dr Thaelmann. The newspapers print varying accounts of the incident. None of them explain why unarmed fugitives ceased their flight in order to attack armed police with their bare hands.