SENSATIONAL SHOOTING AFFRAY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2135, 9 March 1908, Page 2

SENSATIONAL SHOOTING AFFRAY.

MAN MORTALLY WOUNDED. HIS ASSAILANT ARRESTED. Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, March 8. A great sensation was caused in Lyttelton at about a quarter to five on Saturday afternoon, when three revolver shots wero heard in Oxford Street. It turned out that a man named Alexander James Muir had been shot' and wounded. The origin of tho affair was a quarrel between Muir aud a man named Frederick Hall some months ago, and on that occasion Hall affronted Muir 'and broke his jaw, and for doing so teeeivr ed three months’ had not beon long out of gaol, aiid, according to Muir, he had met Hall repeatedly, but had not spoken to him. On Saturday afternoon Muir was standing on the front doorstep of Clark’s boarding-house in Oxford Street, when Hall came along and said, “You think you are going to get out .of this, but you are not.” He then drew a revolver and fired three shots at Muir, two of them taking effect. Hall thou ran away, and hid ! himself in a right-of-way off Norwich Quay, but Constables Moriarty and Wilson gave chase, and as Constable Moriarty approached him, Hall pulled the trigger of his revolver twice in succession, but the weapon missed fire. He was then arrested and taken to tho lock-up. Muir was taken into Clark’s board-ing-house and attended to by a doctor, who states that ho is mortally wounded, and his depositions were taken. Muir and Hall were wharf lumpers, and there had been enmity between them ever since tho quarrel referred to occurred. Hall came out of gaol in January last, and although ..the_meii met almost daily at C-lar . • Harding-house for meals they never spoke to each other. Muir used to live there, and Hall went there for meals only. t Muir was attended by both Drs. Newall and Uphani, and the latter stated that ho had two bullet wounds in tho body. Ono bullet entered above the liver, and the other, which had been evidently fired from behind, lodged in the bade, tearing the left lung. Latest advices report that the victim is in a state of collapse, and his recovery is considered hopeless.