A DESPERATE AFFRAY. Burglar Chasing Over House-tops. Two Policemen Shot. London, July 24th.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 69, 27 September 1884, Page 4

A DESPERATE AFFRAY. Burglar Chasing Over House-tops. Two Policemen Shot. London, July 24th.

Tt is almost necessary to soaich in the pages of fiction for a parallel to tho manhunt which took place at Hoxton in the North of London during the early hours of Friday morning last. Bill Slices, the murderer ot Nancy, pursued from cellar to roof by a i aging mob, is only an imaginative pietuie, yet the incidents of that tin illing tale are not more striking than Lhe veritable puisuit and capture ot Wiight, ihe IJoKton burglai, along the tiles of the Nilc-sUect houses. The main facts of the sloiyaro thu- recoidedby tho "Daily Telegraph " of Satuiday : — About one o'clock yesterday moinnm, it appears, the premises ot Mr Elsbach, Juuiei, in the New Noith Road, wOl c bi oken into, and some articles cat lied oil. The burglars ellbcted their entrance through a window at the rear of the house, by pushing back the catch ; and ]nobably they •would havo decamped "with largei booty if the owner of the shop had not been disturbed and come downstair. lie seems to have caught .sight of the two men, Wright and Wheatlcy, and no doubt li. id lie tiled (o captuie them they would ha\e used the levolver.s with which they weie |)io\idcd ; but, a-, theii pio^ics*, was not iuteiiupted, they contented themselves by simply going out oi the fiout door and making oil. Four houis Litei I'olice-con-stable (i. uner noticed one ot tho men, Wheat ley, linking in a school yaid at the reai ot a (Inn eh; and, getting o\er the railings, attempted to seize him, Wright, the other and more dcspciate of the two lobbci.s, on i-eeing hi.s comiadc struggling with a |H)liceman, at once tired three shots, the last of which took ellect ; but the constable .-till, though wounded, bra\ely kept a glip ot his antagonist, until the timel\ aunal of a woikmau named Thomas and ot Inspector .Ma.} naid enabled him to secuie Wluatley. Wiight, meanwhile, scaled the willing and was making oil, a\ lien he was eiKouuteied by two other constables, who weie running up to the scene of action, and who tiied to intercept him. The names of ihe-e policemen are Chllord and Snell. On seeing himsell in imminent peril ot capture, thclniiul.il tinned and .-hot the l.ittei , who now lies d.ing( lously wounded at the hospital, together with (-{ainci,thc other injiucd corisj.ilde. JL is highly cieditable to these couMgeous men that they were ready to cope with lobbeis aimed with Itiieaims; and it is equally a matter of public eongiat ulation that a passing workman -hould, at the risk of hi.s own life, have joined m and helped the appointed guardians of older. When Policeman Snell was shot down, Clilloid wa.s then left to continue the pursuit of the miscreant abo\ c ; and this he did, although lepoatedly ilueatened with the levolver. The noise of tiie.iinis had now attracted scveial newm-, to the spot, and they also took p.u t in the cha-e. Aftci tiaveisin<_> .scveial stioet-, the hunted burglar seems tob.ue caught sight ot a laddei letting against the wall of a house in Xile street, up w hich he climbed, still followed by Police con&tablo Oliilord and some enterpribing members of the crowd which had assembled. All along the roofs of the houses the pursuit was kept up, the burglar leaping from one to another and menacing everyone who approached him with his deadly weapon. The despeiate character of the luih'an can be imagined from his tearing oil the slates to hurl at his pursuers w hen the levolver happily became useless in his hand*. Supposing that he had not happened to drop the chamber part of his weapon, and to lose his cartridges, who knows how many lives might not have been lost in the attempt to arrest a single homicidal burglar .' As it was, the police and their supporters, after great exertions, succeeded at last in seizing the criminal. It is easy to excuse the fury of the mob, who would have wreaked instant vengcanco on the man if they had been permitted. At present it is not certain whether he and his comrade Avill be charged w ith burglary and attempted murder, or whether tho severe wounds inflicted on the constables may not, in one case at least, prove fatal, andthepiisonershavctoboputon trial for the gravest ollencc known to the law. Everybody will hope that tho heroic devotion to duty displayed by these two London policemen will not end in the untimely death of either of then, but that they may both spoedily recover.