NARROW ESCAPE

Hokitika Guardian, 24 July 1933, Page 6

NARROW ESCAPE

MAN HIT BY RIFLE BULLET

RAILWAY STATION INTRUDER

(Per Press Association — Uopurijht.)

CHRISTCHURCH, July 25.

Leonard Arthu t - Lea, 39, married, a railway clerk, was shot through the jaw Iby. ian unknown, masked assailant vt Addington staticu yesterday evening. He was hospitulled, hjs condition being satisfactory. N« money was iSlaleu and there is no clue ol: the assailant who had decamped. He had

used a rifle which was tired through a ticket window.

Interviewed in hospital, Lee, who was shot in the jaw hy a. masked man at Addington yesterday, said he was ; alone fin the station at 6.45 pan. when lie heard a knock ut the shutter of the I ticket office, and went to answer it. As he thing up the shutter and bent to answer ihe knocking, he caught a I glimpse of a man with rifle uplifted. There was a ehou and lie staggered j back with his foce pouring with Wood. I There wjs the- sound of running leet, ■ but by the time he managed to get to the door there wais no one in sight and i he was too weak to make an immediate search. He called for help and was i found shortly a!fteinrard s by two men. _ There was no sign of the man with the rifle; j Lee knows of no reaeon why he • should he. shot at, and 'attributes the I incident either to a madman or a j bungling thief, who was 1 lightened off by Lee’s cries for help. He knows no man who would wish to do him such grievous injury. It was his regular post on . thi 6 particular Sunday, and there was no likelihood of any other official being on the prom sos. “I caiKit understand it,” he said. The police at present are equally at a loss. Robbery was a very unlikely mo.ive as anyone would know, there would be little money about a, railway station on a Sunday afternoon. In fact the sum on the premise,-, was not lnqi’e ('■than £4. In any case the method followed by the shooter was 'hardly that fof a man vlho intended to rob the station. .

The whole .affair is inexplicable. Interviewed by detectives, Lee said that •h : s assailant' was' a. young man, about sft. 6in. tin 'height, wearing a felt hat with the lower p it of his face .covered, with a handkerchief. ~ '

\ Detectives to-day j are continuing their investigations. The bullet entered Lee’s chin / beneath the lower lip on .the'right .side, and lodged in the ■neck without touching, an artery.