SHOOTING SENSATION

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XXXV, Issue 8920, 26 May 1936, Page 3

SHOOTING SENSATION

POLICE OFFICER ATTACKED BY BANDITS NARROW ESCAPE FROM DEATH Australian and N.Z Cable. MELBOURNE, May 25. A sensational shooting affair is reported in which Superintendent John O’Connell Brophy, who began duty as chief of the Victorian Criminal Investigation Department a week ago, was the victim. An official police statement, issued last evening, declared that Superintendent Brophy went to Royal Park on Friday night to try to catch car bandits who are operating in that locality and was himself held up by two armed men who apparently recognised him. They fired three shots before Superintendent Brophy 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 the buckle of his braces. It was at first stated that four shots were fired from a car, and that one bullet struck one of Mr Brophy’s cheeks, another his right arm, a third the back of his neck and a fourth his chest over the heart. The last bullet was deflected by something in his pocket, fie was reported to be not in a serious condition. The Police Department was extremely reticent. Its Press bureau in an official statement soon after the affair, said that Mr Brophy was accidentally shot in the right arm while handling his own pistol at police headquarters. Reporters, however, who were banned at the detective office, ascertained that Mr 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 resides in the suburb of ■ Parkville.