New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-04-14
Four Soldiers Said
ToHave Admitted
Shooting at Hollis
Camp Mills Men Caught in
Police Net After Six Per-
sons Are Wounded

Five persons, including q woman and
a policeman, were shot early yesterday
morning in Hollis, Queens. by soldiers
from Camp Mills, who were being pur-
sued by automobile after hold-up in a
hotel there. Four soldiers of the 4oth
Infantry were arrested after the police
had thrown a Gordon about the place
and Intercepted every soldier found.
They are said to have confessed.
The wounded who were taken to St.
Mary's Hospital, Jamaica, are Miss
Edna Brush, Of Jamaica, shot IN chest
and back; Walter Stillwell, of Hunt
ington, shot through right arm and
chest; George Gerard, Of Huntington,
shot in right arr, and chest; William
Brush, Of Huntington. shot in hip, and
Patrolman Henry Weber, hip bone
smashed Webber's condition Is most
serious. The prisoners are Sergeant
Otis O. Walker, of Milburn, Okla, and
Privates Roy S. Smithson. of Anderson.
w. Va; Harry Cohen, of 534 Grand
Avenue, Brooklyn, and William B. Har-
rison, Of Centreville, Tenn.
SOkQleT OanOlLS AXE 90
It was about / a. m. when four SOL
diers entered Henry Veinbrink's Hotel,
at Fulton Street and Farmers Avenue,
Hollis. When Veinprlnk turned to find
ginger ale for them the soldiers drew
pistols and lined up the proprietor and
five customers against the wall. Alter
taking SIS from them the soldier BAN
dts withdrew.
A = Of their C.
tins slipped out by rear door and ran
to a police booth four blocks away.
There he found Patrolmen Weber and
Cotton. The patrolmen leaped on the
running board of an automobile in
which Miss Brush and the three men
from Huntington were returning from
Brooklyn theatre. and started east
on Fulton Street in pursuit OF the rob-
bers.
Within q few blocks they overlook
four soldiers who, the police say,
opened rapid fire with their automatics
on catching sight of the uniforms in
the car The swo patrolmen dropped
off and took shelter, replying with their
revolvers. Webber's fire soon ceased,
and the soldiers fed. Patrolman Cotton
| found his companion and every mem
Der of the theatre party seriously
wounded.
Sergeant Aids in Bathrobe
Cotton put them in an automobile
and started them for the hospital
Then he was reinforced by Sergeant
Charles Bruins, Of the Macdougal
Street police station. who had heard
the shooting at his home near by, and
came running to the scene in bath
robe.
Others who heard the shooting tele,
phoned the Jamaica station house, ano
reserves were sent to the hotel in auto
mobiles. They arrested about thirty
soldiers, among them the four suspects
Neither weapons nor money was
found on any OF the prisoners Money
and pistols, which the police recovered
later in the morning, however, are sale
to have been found buried at a spo
indicated by one of the soldiers.
The men are charged with feloniou
assault and robbery, to which the,
pleaded not guilty in police court.
The police are investigating
charge that three of the four soldier
under arrest were among the soldiers
who, few days ago, held up an,
robbed patrons of two saloons in Der
gen County, N. J. William Blood, 5;
Prospect Street. Jersey City, last nigh
identified Harry Cohen as one in tn,
group that took his money on tina