Arizona republican., 1901-10-26
A GUN TURNED LOOSE
The Man Behind it Merely Pulled the
 Trigger.

A shooting affray took place at Tenn pc yesterday just in time for the grand jury now in session to take cognizance of 1t. The shooter was w. J. Birchell and the target was J. F.. Sturgeon. The bottom of the trouble was business difficulty. both parties having been un- til last Wednesday night engaged in running opposition meat markets Riv- airy ran high. so that for long time the people of Tempe had been enjoy ing unusual advantages in the mat ter of buying meat On Wednesday night BirchelI sold out his interest in the business to his partner, F. w. Hol- sapple. so that he felt free to wing Mir Sturgeon without subjecting himself to the charge of having been moved by professional jealousy.
 The shooting took place in front of the Tempe house about 9 o'clock and before noon Birchell was bound over to the grand jury in the sum of 5000 and by the middle of the afternoon that body had the case under consideration. Both parties and a. great cloud of wit nesses were in town
 Sturgeon, speaking. of the shooting. said there had been no i'll feeling be- tween nim and Bircheil beyond keen and healthy business enmity. but they had always been on 5peaKin5 terms He said that. therefore. when they met yesterday morning on the street and when Birchell asked him if he had told HolsappIe that he had been robbing him and before he could make any sort of a reply Birchell hit him on the back of the head with a gun. he was filled with mingled sentiments of surprise and pain. The blow with the gun w,.s followed almost immediately by a shot.
 If Birchell had established an aver age. between his speed and accuracy with the gun, Sturgeon would now be a dead man, for he shot very fast and was at no time farther away from his target than six feet Nobody knows where the first shot went. but MT Sturgeon had his eye on the second and side-stepped it. That Is he looked at Birchelrs eye with one eye and his trigger finger with the other. Thus he was enabled to anticipate the motions of Mir. Bircnell. dodge to one side and keep MT. Birchell guessing. The last time the gun was aimed point blanK and some execution might have been done. but for the presence of Frank Fogel. who struck up Bfrchell's pistol hand.
 At about this stage of the fusilade Sturgeon set out in search of a gun, for he realized that he and Bircheli were on an unequdl lOOt1nS- IL seemed to Sturgeon that Birchell had the only gun there was in Tempe. Every man he applied to either did not own q deadly weapon or else had loaned # that morning Sturgeon believes that Tempe is the best opening for a gun store in the United States. He finally found refuge in an upper story and the encounter. as deadly many a South American battle came to an end. Then the spectators who had scattered them selves like partridges at the opening cf hostilities recollected themselves and suggestions began to be made for th,, apprehension of Mir. Birchell. who had committed the double offense of att tempting the life of a citizen and ot casting stigma on the town for bad markmanship.
 A palliating circumstance in the last count is Mir. Surgeons lack of geo. grphical area. He is not what might be called a dipose or obese but Is rath- CT inclined to thinness. He reduced the chances of mortality by standing sidewise to Mir Birchell, that is, while he stood at all.