Omaha daily bee., 1896-03-18
1T nxoxnnArEs OFFICER CLAIR.
Coroner's Jury Finds that lie shot
GcNer In n~ischnrEc nf His nniN.

Jury Finds that He Shot
Gcyer In Discharge OF His Duty.
Coroner Jennings held an inquest yesterday
over the body Of Fred Geyer, the dead burg
lar. who met his fate while resisting arrest
on Sunday morning. 1t required only a
brief inquiry to thoroughly exonerate Officer
Charles l.. CLAIR, whose pistol bullet in
hlcied the fatal wound.
The chief interest in the testimony was
the theory Of Drs. Treynor and Macrae. jr.,
who testified to the facts elected by the
post norton examination They described
the course OF the wound from the point
where the ball entered the body to where
II stopped in the large muscles of the left
leg. The wound was described as being
remarkable from the fact that the bullet
could travel over a foot through the mans
body and miss all vital parts in the locality.
II was a dangerous wound, but not one that
should produce death so suddenly as IL did.
DR.. Macrae was Of the opinion that death
was not to be attributed directly to the
wound, but to some peculiar septic poison
Ing, either in the mans clothes perforated
by the ball or else In the body. He ex-
planned that there were a number of large
veins In that part Of the body leading di-
rectly to the liver, and through them the
septic poisoning could be carried directly
into the circulation. The bullet has missed
the bladder and the large artery Of the leg,
but had, of course, severed some Of the veins.
The man might eventually have died from
the wound, but in the ordinary course 1t
would have taken several days.
Officer CLAIR retold the story of the shoot
ing substantially as 1t has been printed in
The Bee. When Geyer was placed under
arrest at the round house he evinced a strong
disposition to escape. He had just finished
his alteration with the yard men and was
nursing the wound inflicted upon his head
by Whitman's lantern. All the way to the
patrol box he hpggel the Oficpr IN rnlppg Sc
him long enough to let him bind up his head
with his handkerchief. The officer kept
hold OF his arm until he reached the North
western freight house and after turning in
the call was ready to halp the man dress his
bleeding head. Geyer refused to do it, or
permit 1T to be done and grew very abusive.
CLAIR testified that when he first caught
sight Of Geyer at the round house he in
stantly recognized him as one of the men
he had chased away from the rear Of the
grocery store. HIS prisoner grew in abusive
ness and anxiety to escape as the patrol
wagon approached, and it was while he was
looking at the wagon for an instant that he
relaxed his vigilance, and received a blow
on the side of the neck from Geyer's fist.
He lodged the full force OF the blow, but
was staggered by the sudden attack. He
was not sure whether the blow caused him
to slip and fall or whether his fall into the
gutter was due to stepping off the sidewalk.
He fired the first shot into the ground and
did not intend the second one to strike the
fleeing burglar, but just as he shot his foot
slipped on a coupling pin or something that
rolled and the movement threw his pistol in
line with the fleeing man at the instant it was
discharged.
Patrol Driver Sandel's testimony fully
corroborated GLARS.
The jury retired and consulted a few mo-
ments upon the form of the verdict, and
finally made 1t as follows:
I'VE, the jury, find that Fred Geyer came
to his death by a pistol shot fired by Charles
l.. CLAIR while in the discharge of his duty
and from the evidence we fully exonerate
the said Charles CLAIR from all blame.
~. H. PACE,
CHRIS BOSEN,
&c. w. COKER."