Shot-Gun Argument

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 10, 6 January 1948, Page 5

Shot-Gun Argument

Family Dispute At Matata Ends Violently A family argument that led to shooting landed Percy Falwasser in' gaol over the holidays. Falwasser, convicted in the Police Court on December 23 of having assaulted Ellen Falf'wasser, his step-mother, at Matata "the previous Sunday, was sentenced to one month in the Whakatane gaol.

Messrs L. D. Lovelock and L. H. Brown were on the Bench. Sergeant M. Farrell, who prosecuted, said the matter was a good deal more serious than the charge indicated. Actually, Falwhsser had menaced his father’s household with a shot gun and had fired two shots up the passage, plugging holes in the front door,. He had' also laid violent hands on his step-mother. His temper was violent, and he was likely to do real harm if not checked. Constable R. F. Julian gave corroborative evidence.

Falwasser said he didn’t do it. He admitted he had the gun. Admitted firing two shots. But he said he fired them in the air. “They were coming out of the house to mob me,” he said. “About six of them. So I fired in the air to frighten them. .My father, he says he’s going to kill me if he gets me.” The rest of his story was that the house the father occupied at Matata had been bought with his allotted pay whilst he Was in the army, so he regarded it as his. The stepmother had ordered him out, he had gone back to argue about it and had lost his temper. But he denied shooting in or into the house. Constable Julian said the shots were fired from the back door along the passage to the front door. There were several women and children in the house and it was sheer luck that no one was hurt.