A CHRISTCHURCH TRAGEDY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 387, 10 March 1908, Page 2

A CHRISTCHURCH TRAGEDY.

Victim Mortally Wounded. Christchurch, Monday. A great sensation was caused in Lyttelton at about a quarter to five on Saturday afternoon, when three revolver shots where heard in Oxford street. It turned out that a man named Alexander James Muir had been shot and wounded. The origin of the affair was a quarrel between Muir and a man named Frederick Hall, some months ago. On that * occasion Hall affronted Muir and broke his jaw, and for doing so received three months’ imprisonment. Hall bad not been long out olgoal, and, according to Muir, he had met Hall lepeatcdly, but had not spoken to him. On Saturday afternoon Muir was standing on the front doorstep of a boardinghouse, 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 then ran away and hid himself in a right-of-way. Constables Moriarty and Wilson ' gave chase, and as Constable Mori: arty approached him Hall pulled the trigger of his revolver twice in succession, but the weapon misfired. He was then arrested. Muir was taken into a boardinghouse and attended to by a doctor, who states that he is mortally wounded, and his depositions were taken. Hall came out of gaol in January last.

The doctor stated that Muir had two bullet wounds in the body. One bullet entered above the liver and the other, which had been fine evidently from behind, lodged in the back, tearing the left lung. ' The latest abvices report the victim to be in a stale of collapse, and his recovery is considered hopeless.