Imperial Valley press., 1919-08-28
Kenneth Oliver Finds Burg
lar in His Home and Is
Held Up With His Own 32
Automatic Revolver.
TURNS TABLES
ON MEXICAN
Backed Into Closet Where
He has Navy As. He Shoots
First and Puts Bullet Thru
Heart of Thief.

Held up, at the point of his own so
automatic revolver, by Manuel Rois,
burglar, he had caught in the act of
robbing his house at o'clock, this
morning, Kenneth D. Oliver, a we'll
to-do citizen of Brawley, shot through
the door of the closet into which he
had been backed by the Mexican and
killed him.
The bullet from a Colts 45 Navy
pierced the door Of the closet, went
through the burglars body and heart
and stuck in the wall of the room.
Mr.. Oliver, who is said to have once
been Border Ranger, spent last
night in Ell Centre, his family being
out of the Valley for the summer.
When he entered his house at Fifth
and A streets, Brawley, this morning,
he saw at once from its disordered
condition, that robber had been at
work and opening closet door, he
saw Rois concealed within.
Oliver was unarmed and closing the
door went out to look for a weapon.
He found monkey-wrench and arm
ed with it returned to the closet.
Meantim the Mexican had sought
refuge in another closet in the living
room. When Oliver entered this room,
the Mexican opened the door of the
closet. He had in his hand, divers
32 automatic which he had found in
the drawer of dresser. Oliver was
forced to drop the wrench and to hold
up his hands. Oliver with his hands
up sat on louge. The Mexican order
ed him up and to back into the closet
and then shut the door upon him.
There was no key to the door and in
the closet was divers Navy 45 and
a 3O-30 rifle. The moment the door
closed upon him he reached for the re-
volver. In doing so he knocked some
thing down. Rois hearing the noise,
turned the knob of the door with his
left hand, the automatic held in his
right.
The moment the door was opened
far enough to give Oliver sight at
his target, he shot The bullet passed
through the door at an angle and,
then, it was afterward ascertained
through the Mexican.
The mortally wounded man turned
and ran toward the open kitchen door.
Oliver came out of the closet in pur-
suit but stumbled and fell to his
knees. From this position he shot
again at Rois as the latter passed
through the door into the yard, but
the bullet went wild.
Rois fell but getting to his feet ran
staggeringly few feet and then drop
ped prone with his face downward
upon the ground.
Mr.. Oliver Immediately telephoned
for a physician but Rois had gone to
his last account. The doctor said that
death must have been immediate.
In response to the call from the
Brawley city marshal, f. E. Cum
mings, acting sheriff, and Dave Mat
lock, deputy, broke speed records to
Brawley. Acting Coroner Burger was
summoned and jury empaneled, Its
verdict was that Manuel Rois had
come to his death at the hands of
Kenneth d. Oliver, and that it was an
act of justifiable homicide.
The distance the Mexican ran with
bullet wound through his heart was
not the least remarkable circumstance
of the tragedy.
Acting Sheriff Cummings is salts
fled that Rois is one of the gang that
his men have been seeking who have
been guilty of number of burglaries
MARTINEZ, who now awaits trail fol
the robbery of the Fowler house, anc
who owes his arrest to the new rub
ber- -soled shoes that left their imprin
| in the mud near the Fowler house il
thought to be another and his com