Evening star., 1923-10-16
2POuCEMEN SHOT
F.. BY GANG MAY DIE
Four, One Seriously Wound
ed, Held in Custody for
Battle in Southwest.

Whisky bandits late last night shot
and probably fatally wounded two
police men who surprised them while
they were attempting 10 break into
garage owned by Eizey Jones, col
ored. in Temple court between Sd and
Az streets southwest. One or the
gunmen himself was mortally wound
cd by one of the policemen before he
collapsed n
The policemen. both of whou@are
coIored, are John W. Purcell OF 742
Harvard street northwest and Horace
II. Crawford at 1904 ID street south
cast. Both are attached to the
fourth precinct station. Crawford,
Hospital. may die before sundown-
He has four bullet wounds in his alb
dcmen and It was necessary to re-
move eight inches of his intestines.
Purcell was shot twice and, although
less seriously. wounded. is ROC eX-
pected to live.
Four In Custody.
The wounded bandit. George Ludley.
colored. Of i46 Gag street. is at Cas-
ualty Hospital with several bullet
wounds in his chest. Three other
colOred men. Ernest 4. Brown of 1I25
1fth street northwest, William Lud-
ley of 1ll2 Q street northwest. and
Lloyd Monroe Of 32i5 18th street
northwest are under arrest at the
fourth precinct station in connection
with the shooting. The city is being
secured for a fourth. Joseph Shorter.
who is said to complete the bandit
gang.
Purcell and Crawford. both in plain
clothes. started down Temple court
in search of bootieggers AS they
three men crouched fn front Of the
door. Purcell turned his fashiIght on
the group and the next instant a vol
ley Of shots crashed out. The fash
the same bullet tearing its way up
his arm and making ii impossible for
him to draw his revolver. -
Crawford. however, whipped out his
pistol and returned the fire. In an
other minute. however. a second fu-
sillade came from the bandits guns
and the two policemen dropped.
Crawford never moved, but Purcell
had enough strength left to crawl
to patrol box. q block away. and
pull the lever that signals the patrol
wagon. He was TOO weak to speak
and when men from the station ar
rived in rush they found him un-
conscious beside the box. Crawford
still lay where he fell after the tragic
duel.
Blood stains were followed down
to the other end of the alley. bearing
mute witness to the fact that at
least one o. the banuitS mad Deen
wounded and carried away by his
friends as they fed after the duel.
Sound General Alarm.
Immediately after news Of the
shooting had been flashed TO the
fourth precinct a general alarm was
sounded and headquarters detectives
and uniformed men from the fourth,
fifth and sixth precincts were hur-
ried to the scene under the personal
command of Maj. Sullivan. Not a
trace could be found of the bandits
until several hours after the tragedy
when Emergency Hospital notified
the authorities that a call for the
ambulance had come from the home
OF George Ludley. on Q street
Policemen were rushed to that
place and found the negro at the
point of death. lie stoutly denied
having been in the gun battle, but
when his brother William was ar
rested the latter. admitted both had
gone to Jones' garage for the pur-
pose of stealing some whisky they
believed was stored there. He also
implicated Brown. Monroe and Short
err The negro said several pistols
were in the party, but all denied
actually doing the shooting.
Surgeons at Emergency Hospital
this morning declared they probably
would perform a blood TRANSMISSION
operation on both Purcell and Craw-
ford late this afternoon in an effort
to save their lives.