A MAN SHOT BY A CONSTABLE

Temuka Leader, Issue 2639, 29 March 1894, Page 3

A MAN SHOT BY A CONSTABLE

Sydney, March 19,

Great public excitement has been created at Broken Hill by a case in which two constables shot a man they wished to arrest. The man was John Considine, a shift boss in the Proprietary Company’s mine. On Saturday night Constables White and Shiels warned him to go home close on midnight, and some words ensued. Considine struck Constable White, whereupon Constable Shiels drew his baton and hit the man on the forehead. Considine went off, but returned again with, as the policemen say, an iron bar in his hand. With this weapon they state he struck Shiels on the left side breaking one rib, and also hit White on the head, cutting through his thick cloth cap, and inflicting a scalp wound. The police ran to the station, which was near at hand, and procured revolvers. They then sallied forth in search of Considine, and came across him near his home, which is about 100 yards from the scene of the first affray. Just at this stage the facts are far from clear, but one or two witnesses who were close by say that they heard the police call on Considine to stop, and the man kept on his way. Throe revolver shots were tired at him by ono of the constables from a distance of ton paces. The police were afraid that ho was still in possession of the iron bar, and Considine was just entering his own premises by the back way, when the police again fired at him, and he was in tha act of turning round when a shot struck him in the stomach going through ins intestines and entering the lumbar region of the spine. The constable not knowing that Considine was hurt, and seeing that the man had nothing in his hands, closed with him and threw him down! Considine then said, “ 1 give in.” The police were taking him off, but when only a few yards had been traversed Considine said, “ I’m done,” and fell to the ground. A cab was procured to convoy him to thp hospital, but the wounded man died within five msnutes, Six shots wore fired in all, and according to the evidence of witnesses and of Constable White himself it was he who fired the fatal bullet. Considine was a married man with a wife apd two children and a man of great strength. One of the bullets went through the window of a house fifty yards away aud narrowly missed a woman who was asleep in bed. A mass meeting was held on Sunday and a dequtation waited on the SubInspector to ask that he should place the two constables under arrest. Tips was done on Monday. Both men are greatly distressed at the occurrence.