SENSATIONAL AFFRAY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3791, 12 May 1928, Page 2

SENSATIONAL AFFRAY.

TWO MEN IN HOSPITAL. Timaru, May 11. A sensational affray occurred at Otai in the early hours of this morning. It appears that Bernard Lewis Blackwell and Ernest McCunn, potato diggers, journeyed with their employer to the house of a man named Ancell, where it is alleged the visitors forced an entrance by breaking down the door. Mrs. Ancell, in night attire, made investigations and found Blackwell in the bedroom of her eighteen-year-old son. She ordered him out but he declined to go, and it is alleged he struck the woman and her son.

Mrs. Ancell then secured a shotgun which she gave her son. Blackwell appealed for assistance to McCunn, and after an interval both visitors left the house. BlackweTl threatened to return and the youth fired a shot in the air, Blackwell then went to the house of Robert Barr, brother-in-law of Mrs. Ancell, close by, where it is alleged Blackwell shattered some windows and threatened to murder Barr. Blackwell entered Barr’s house and when ordered out made threats, and Barr hit the intruder over the head with a shovel. Blackwell then retreated but returned and broke another window.

At this stage young Ancell fired a shot at each man, hitting one in the leg and the other in the body. The men were then brought to the police station at St. Andrews, and later to Timaru, where both are the hospital. The injuries are not regarded as' serious. The cause of the disturbance has not been disclosed.