The New York herald., 1921-02-17
NEGRO And Scoops,
SHOOTING WILDLY,
HIT A BYSTANDER
Harlem's Busiest Corner
Scene of Running Fight
Through Crowds.
NIGHTSTICK ENDS 1T
Manager of Marshall Still
man Athletic Club Gets
Bullet in Chest.
MOTOR USED AS SHIELD
Prisoner Asserts Policeman
Started Trouble by Open
ing Fire on Him.
MOTOR USED AS SHIELD

James Barnes, a young negro with
q finished capacity for two handed
shooting, was the storm centre yester-
day of pistol fight at 125th street
and Seventh avenue, in which five
policemen emptied their revolvers at
him without hitting him and which
stirred that busy corner of Harlem as
1t has not been stirred in years. One
policeman was hit on the tip OF the
finger. another had bullet sent
through his coat and an innocent by
stander-Aaron higher manager OF
the Marshall Stllman Athletic CLUB
at the corner-went to the Harlem
Hospital with a bullet in his chest
The fight began few minutes after
John Wade and Jesse Lawrence, two
other negroes, had complained to Police
man Clarence Austin at the corner OF
Eighth avenue and 125th street that
Barnes was waiting for them at Seventh
avenue with a gun. Austin started east
with the two to confer upon the matter
with Barnes but half way to the corner
indicated Barnes stepped from door
way and shooting began forthwith
Wade and Lawrence stepped out OF II
and Barnes and the policeman took up
strategic positions on opposite sides ot
an automobile which was standing at the
curb. Each emptied his pistol at the
other without either being hit. Then
Barnes as he counted Austin'e last shot,
ran for the corner of Seventh avenue
waving a second pistol as he ran. Aus
Tin sped after him blowing his police
whistle
stick Effective, where shots Fail.
At Seventh avenue Policeman Denis
Rogers and Robert McVeigh were wait
ing and as soon as Barnes came within
range they fired at him. None OF their
bullets hit In another moment Ser
geant Abraham Cohen and Policeman
Thomas Burke ran up and opened hre
also and by this time Austin, who had
reloaded. added more bullets to the fusil-
lade which was being emptied at the
negro by the other four policemen. Still
none of the bullets hit Barnes.
The main reason for this was that a
crowd of persons which by every law
of human safety and human intelligence
should have left the corner OF 18th
street and Seventh avenue as clear as
a spot In the Sahara closed in upon the
fighting. The police, when this hap
pened. all quit firing. but Barnes. whose
weapons and ammunition seemed never
TO run out, kept firing first at one COP
and then az another with undated
vivacity lie quit firing but not fighting
when Rogers reached a position behind
him AMI cracked him on the head with
his locust.
Barnes dropped his guns and went
AQd a Oai az
absorbed punishment from all the poics
clubs present before he capitulated.
Then the police had a full twenty min
utes keeping him safe because bullet
from some ones revolver had In the
meantime hit higher. and the crowd
began to yell that Barnes had killed
him and ought TO be lynched.
One Policeman Nicked.
Ultimately Barnes was escorted to the
West 122d street police station, and there
described himself as an elevator cp-
orator in a Broadway apartment house
and living at "a West i34th street He
admitted that he and Wade had quar-
relied and that each had threatened the
other. but insisted tnat he had done no
shooting until Policeman Austin shot Ut
him. He was held for felonious assault.
After he was taken TO q cell Austin
made the discovery that bullet had
gone through the right sleeve of his
coat and McVeigh found that bullet
had burned the tip of one Of the fingers
on his left hand.
higher is in serious condition az the
Harlem Hospital lie was taken there
d. Willie Jackson. fighter. who trains
az the Marshall Stiilman Club and whose
runabout was at the curb when higher
fell