The New York herald., 1870-08-13

Inquest In the Hunters Point Homlcide--A
Verdict Of Justifiahic Homicide Rendered.
An Inquest was held yesterday by Coroner Schir
mer in the case OF John Smith, the man who died
Monday last at ~ Coerck street from the effects
OF pistol shot wound sustained by him on the 9th
INST, at Hunters Point. The evidence In the
was rather remarkable in an ethical point OF view.
John Smith, of 81 Goerck street. and father Of the
deceased, seemed rather unwilling to testify, but
was induced to state tnat the boy would not tell
him how he received the shot, but had stated that
he got his wound either at Grecnpont or Hunters
Pont.
Simon v. Pilgrim, M. d., OF 100 Columbia street,
testified that he mad attended the decel lsed, and
found wound IN the abdomen. In the right side,
the umblicus. The man would not tell how he re-
ceived the wound nor give any description OF the
man VINO had shot hlm. Death, in his opinion, had
been caused by perltonitis the result of the wound
John b. schmelzel, of Flushing l.. l., testified that
he Is the general ticket agent of the Long Island
Railroad, which company had repair ward and
dock at Hunters Point, and the premises were
being constantly plundered by thieves on tine river,
on by them inside OF the years on the
9th inst. an alarm OF thieves was raised, when tile
witness acconpanled by Mr.. Tule' the yard master,
and a gang Of workmen ran down the dock to catch
them. The laborers threw stones at the thieves,
VINO jumped into their b at and were rowing away.
and Mr. Tulle fired several shots at them from re.
volver which the witness had handed hin.
Francis Mcknight, a iunkman at 81 Lewis street,
testified that ne knew the deceased and had O ten
bought iron from him. He had heard that Smith had
been shot while stealing u, Hunters Point.
Rob II l.. smith, a detective In the Eleventh pre-
cinct test fed that he had made an effort to solve
the mystery. The parents of Smith had conf ,ssed
to him that the deceased had been shot while steal
ing irol at Hunters Point in company with one
Odey and his brother. The witness ha1 since ascer
tanned that Odey was only an alias for Sprague ana
he had found that he knew the who,e gang, having
been on the watch FOR them for some time: ne mad
made inquiries and found tnat in all PROBABILITY the
falal shot had be n fired by man named K. W;
Tulle, IN ugh none OF the people in the yard seemed
to know that man had been shot.
Rodney W. Yu Q, OF IL West Ninth street, de-
scribed the operations OF the water thieves at
length and corroD )rated Mr.. Schmelze!s evidence
IN regard to The chase after and attack upon the
thieves on the 9th inst He had fired only two shots
IRON The revolver when, not understanding its me-
chanIsm, he handed IL TO canalbOat captain, who
nred two more at the boat.
The Jury rendered the following verdlct:-"Tnat
the deceased cam, to his death oy peritonius, the
result Of pistol shot wound OF the abdomen al the
hands Of Rodney w. Tulle or the unknown party
who firel the two shots, and We consider the said
shooting just ible.n
Detect. We Smith is now making determined effort
70 secure the arrest Of the Sprague brothers and
other river thieves whom he has ascer aimed have
infested the Hunters Point docks. aud bis conduct
is deserving praise In that he has been far sue
cessful.