ARMED POLICE IN MAN HUNT.

Mt Benger Mail, 5 October 1938, Page 4

ARMED POLICE IN MAN HUNT.

FUGITIVE’S DEATH ON POINT OF CAPTURE. , Fifty police officers, many armed with shotguns, searched for nearly three hours recently for an armed man who fired twice at a girl and shot and wounded a police inspector at Kirton, a small village between Felixstowe and Ipswich, England. An aeroplane from Ipswich Airport also took part in the search, which ended when the man, Arthur Smy, 24, a gardener living at Kirton, shot himself dead. The injured officer Inspector Michael Eumsey, who is in charge of the Felixstowe Division of the East Suffolk police, w r as wounded in the jaw and was taken to Guy’s Hospital, London. Later he was stated to bo “quite comfortable. ’ ’

Smy appeared at the back of a house in Rectory Lane, Kirton, where Violet Cone, aged 21, a girl whom he knew, lived. They had been in one another’s company the previous evening. Smy, who was carrying a single-barrelled shot-gun, smashed a window with the butt and fired at Miss Cone, but missed. Miss Cone ran from the house and took refuge in a shop. Smy fired again at her, but again missed. He then ran away. A telephone message was sent to the police, and Inspector Rumsey and Constable Arbon found Miss Cone still in the warehouse. They took a statement from her and as they opened the door of the warehouse to go in pursuit of Smy, they were confronted by Smy. He fired point-blank at the inspector. Smy escaped through the back door of the warehouse still carrying his gun. When an' urgent message (reached the Ipswich County Police headquarters 50 police were dispatched by car and motor cycle to Kirton, about five miles away. They were unarmed when they started, but when they reached Kirton, farmers of the district provided them with shot guns.

Smy was eventually seen near some derelict land, and the police were told. A plan for surrounding him was quickly made. Slowly, with shot guns pointing in his direction, making use of every bit of cover they could find until they reached the open, the police got within 20 yards of him when Smy put his trun to his heart and pulled the trigger.