The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-03-16
MOSELEY IS JUSTIFIED
'coRoNER's VERDICT ON DEATH
 OF EUGENE LEWIS.
Witnesses Testified at Inquest That Patrolman Killed Negro When He Thought His Life
 Was Endangered.


 Headquarters yesterday afternoon at o'clock. formal inquest into the death of Eugene Lewis, the negro who was shot and killed early Tuesday morning by Patrolman F. o. Moseley. The Cor oner rendered verdict of justiflable homicide, after hearing the testimony of the witnesses to the tragedy. No war rant was sworn out for Patrolman Nose .ey.
 The scene of the killing was near the intersection of Cooper and Fowler Streets, Riverside. Mounted Patrolmen E. F. Smith and F. o. Moseley had been sent out to Vesuvius and Riverside Park neignborhood by Police Captain W. H. Taylor to work on the case of the night watchman of the Alabama Compress and Storage Company's plant. who had been knocked unconscious and robbed by an unknown assailant while on duty at the plant earlier in the night.
 While trying to arrest Eugene Lewis and his companion, Ed Nickens, Lewis showed fight and was in the act of hurl- ing a brick at Patrolman Moseley's head when the latter fired, the fatal shot. Lewis was killed almost instantly, the ball taking effect in the front part or the negro's neck, and breaking II. The negro's body was turned over to his rei- atives for burial.
 At the inquest Patrolman Moseley tes- tified as follows:
 .'The first thing that attracted my att tention. two men and a woman came out of house, cursing and singing very loud, and we followed them up under the light. Smith caught one of the men and I started toward the other to catch him when he run off down a little embank- ment by the railroad track and picked up a brick After he had gotten off some fifteen or twenty feet from the light he turned and threw 1t at me. and 1t went by me with good force. If 1t had hit me 1t would have done. me bodily harm. He then turned and ran. and l pursued him. He ran about twenty feet 1 when he stopped and picked up brick and strengthened up. I caught him by the coat tail and he jerked me around and struck at me and knocked my hat off. and stepped back three or four feet, and as he drew his arm back to throw said, I'll fix you.' Then was when l shot him.
 After he fell he was still holding the brick in his right hand. This happened about l o'clock a. m. on the night of March 14 1904. near the Alabama Com press and Storage Company. near the | Intersection of Cooper and Fowler Streets
 at Riverside.
 
 present. The cause of our being out there
 was that the night watchman at the Alabama Compress and Storage Com
 pany's plant had been knocked in the
 head and robbed. and we had been de- tailed by Capt. W. H. Taylor to work | on that case"
 | Ed Mickens, a negro of No. 1o7 Hunt Street. who was with Lewis swore as follows:
 We had been up there to Lavinia's s l who had given a supper. was with a | woman who we called Carry Williams. | We went down to the corner of the Compress. Right there was where the policeman came up and grabbed me and searched me to see if I had anything little behind me then. I was playing a guitar and the woman was singing and then this boy Genie, there was no one with him, he had been cursing and going on. He was near about drunk and the police told him to halt and he kept ago. ing until he, got to brick and he picked up two bricks and he throwed one of them as hard as he could at the poice- man who then run off down the hill nf- ter him. He threw very hard and the | brick went across the road and a good distance the other side of the policeman and then I was under the light and un- der arrest by tho police. The\boy run until he got to two more bricks and picked up two more and then the po- lice turned me loose and I started home when they called me back and I went to him and he handcuffed me- II was standing under the light when heard three shots.
 T have been knowing tbis boy about two months. Every body gives him had name. Last Sunday he threw bricks at Nose Dickson and then went to get pistol.
 ''The police told me that the watch man at the Compress got hurt and that they were out there after that.
 Garry Williams left at once and was not there when the shooting took place and I did not see her any more" Coroner Tice returned this verdict:
 Eugene Lewis came to his death from a gun shot wound in the hands Of F. O. Moseley. being a case of justifable homicide"
 Police Captain Taylor said yesterday that he considered Moseley one of the safest and best men on the force and that he was an even tempered. good man. He said he regretted the tragedy. but believed that Moseley fired only when he thought it absolutely necessary to protect his own life.