SHOOTS HIMSELF ON WAY TO BLACK MARIA

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5321, 6 February 1947, Page 3

SHOOTS HIMSELF ON WAY TO BLACK MARIA

LONDUX. C'jlonel the Hon. Sir Maurice Drummond, Acting-Commissioner of the Metropolitan Poliee, has ordered an inquiry into the cireumstances in which a 2G-year-old prisoner shot himself while being taken to a Black Maria outside Old Street Magistrate's Co' rt. The prisoner, Edwarcl William Hateh, aged 20, of Maitland House, Bishops Way, E., died ip St. Leonard's Hospital, Shoreditch, froni a bullet j wound in the chest. -j Hateh was being escorted across the | yard in the rear of the eourt after ; being sentenced to two months' impri- | sonment for Post Office frauds, when he produced a .22 automatic of Continental make. Before police officers could interfere a shot was fired and he collapsed. He had waited for some time in a cell for the van to arrive to colleet prisoners from the coort. Usually all prisoners are searehed immediatcly they are handed over to the gaoler after sentence and agaitt on arrival at S the prison. All police officers responsible for the custody of prisoners 'at the eourt were ordered to attend -a preliminary inquiry at Old Street police station, and statements were taken. Senior officers from Scotland Yard who are eonducting the inquiry, which is private, are trying to discover how a sentenced man could he in possession of 'a tireavm.