FATAL SHOOTING.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 216, 11 September 1940, Page 10

FATAL SHOOTING.

SYDNEY TRAGEDY. DIED IN WIFE'S ARMS. (By Air.) SYDNEY, September 4. A widow told the Wollongong coroner yesterday how her husband had died in her arms after he had been shot. The inquest was on George William Adams, of Seaview Boad, Wolloogong, who was shot dead in his home on August 9. In Court in custody were Russell George O'Brien, 19, charged with murder, and Evan Davies, 17, who had been charged in the Children's Court. Mrs. Adams said that 011 the night of August 9, she arrived home by car accompanied by her husband, mother, a Mr. and Mrs. Stumbles, and a Mrs. Simpson. Mr. Stumbles was driving the car and after he had let the rest of them out at Adams' home, drove home himself. Her husband walked to the front door and her mother to the back of the house.

"I walked to the side of the house to see if my mother was all riaht,"' said Mrs. Adams. "At that time the light had been switched 011 in the hall; I heard a shot and ran to the front door. I could not see my husband, but I saw someone wearing a leather overcoat disappear into the dining room, followed by another man, also wearing an overcoat. I grabbed the second man by the •belt of his coat with both hands and hung on to him while lie dragged me through the dining room and kitchen to the top of the steps on the back verandah. My arm and forehead then struck a post and I had to release my hold. I ran inside and saw my husband lyin" on the floor in the dining room. I lifted hie head and said: 'Bill.' He just "ave a sigh and did not speak." ° A boy of 17, Cornelius O'Connell. said that about 7.15 p.m. on August 9, he spoke to O'Brien in Crown Street. Wollongong. O'Brien produced an automatic pistol and said: "I am no ajuateur, I am a professional now." O'Connell said he then saw O'Brien join '•van Davies. They were both weariii" leather overcoats. "" The inqu&st was adjourned until September 17.