A WELLINGTON TRAGEDY.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 October 1919, Page 4

A WELLINGTON TRAGEDY.

CONSTABLE SHUT. | > ASSAILANT FIRES HOUSS AND SUICIDES. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. To-night, a man named Alexander Aspin, a waterside worker, tried to ente; the premises in Brook Street occupied by his former wife, who divorced him about a year ago. The woman escaped, and a neighbor summoned Constable Dudding. > When Dudding arrived at t!ie house he looked through the kitchen window, when a shot was fired from within and the constable fell, the bullet going through the right eye. Aspin then set fire to the house. A posse of police and the fire brigade readied the scene shortly after, and then a second shot was heard. The ho a,ye was entered, and Aspin was found in a dying condition, with a Colt revolver lying alongside. The brigade extinguished the fire, and Aspin and Constable Dudding were removed to the hospital where they both died. Dudding was a young married mac with no children, and hailed from the Auckland district. Aspin, who was 48 years of age, and a Norwegian, attempted to commit suicide about twelve months ago.