GANG WAR SUSPECTED

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 92, 12 January 1935, Page 22

GANG WAR SUSPECTED

Man Wounded by Shots

From Car

What the police described as gang warfare broke out again last week after months of ominous silence in Sydney’s underworld. James Andrews, 29, a labourer, of Devonshire Street, city, was sliot by armed men from a motor-car in Cooper Street, Surry Hills. He was wounded three times in tlie feet and thigh, but managed to crawl into a doorway and cseaue tlie hail of bullets that were fired at him from the ear.

He refused, to give any material assistance to the police, declaring that he did not know his assailants or the reason for the attack. He was taken to Sydney Hospital by a passing taxicab, while his attackers drove off at a high speed. Detective-sergeant Hughes, of the eastern wireless patrol, was quickly on the scene and interviewed the man while his wounds received attention at the hospital. Andrews declared that he was walking along Elizabeth Street shortly after 11 p.m. when 'he noticed a blue sedan, in which were three or four men, following him slowly. It kept at a distance of 20 or 30 yards from him. At first he paid no attention to them, and turned quickly into Cooper Street toward his home.

As soon as he left the tramway stop-ping-place near the railway, where numerous people were waiting, the car speeded up and overtook him in Cooper Street. Suddenly he heard a report and a bullet whistled past his head. It was followed by several others, and he saw a gun. projecting from a window of the car before he took to his heels. As goon as he commenced to run a bullet' hit him in the ankle. He turned toward a laneway, and simultaneously bullets struck him in the left foot and right thigh. He crashed to the roadway, and his assailants swiftly swung their ear around, firing again and again at him as he crawled behind the protection afforded by a nearby doorway. He said that the fusillade brought numerous people to the scene; but later the police were unable to locate anyone who had seen the shooting. ‘A taxi-cab passed by as the assailants’ car turned around into Elizabeth Street again, he continued, and he hailed it and was driven to the hospital.

Detectives were unable to gain from the man auy information that would assist them in their investigations. He steadfastly refused to answer pertinent questions. They are of the opinion, however, that the shooting is the culmination of a feud that has been simmering in the underworld for some time past, and they think that further shooting may take place.