Douglas daily dispatch., 1928-02-03
SHOT IS FIRED
AT OFFICER AS
HE ARRESTS MAN

994N = 94 GA AaA@4u0 - - 49, -
George W. Hart, investigator for the
Southern Pacific railroad, was shot at,
at close range in the railroad yards
here last evening when he arrested a
young nan giving the name of William
Blake and took pistol and a flash
light from his prisoner.
Hart told local police and The Dis
patch reporters that he had been look
ing for thieves in the northern end
of the yards where the tracks run out
of the city some distance when he
came up on a man holding a flash
light in his left hand.
The railroad detective relates that
the man held the flashlight in mis-
left hand that his right hand was i'll
mackinaW pocket. Hart says he was
certain that the mans right hand was
On pistol and he addressed the man
and moved steadily toward him until
he was able to jump and grab the
concealed hand.
/ He found the pistol, 38 automatic.
He asked Blake where he was going
and what he was doing in the yards
and Blake told him he was waiting to
catch a train going to Tucson. Hart
| told him, he says, that he was in the
wrong end of the yards for that and
started marching him toward the yard
offices
They were going along the caboose
! tracks near where Seventeenth street
| meets Railroad avenue and near the
! little bridge, when a man suddenly
| jumped out on caboose platform
| which they had just passed and ours
! ing, yelled to them to stop. Hart says
| that he half turned and as he did so
/ the man on the caboose fired at him,
the wind of the discharge blowing
iagainst Hart's face.
The assailant then ran across the
caboose platform leaped into the ditch
! and appeared again running across
! Seventeenth street. Hart said he
/ turned all his attention to his prisoner
TO prevent his escape and brought him
on to his offices. Police took him to
] the city Jail and turned out deputy
sheriffs and all available officers to
search trains and the city for the other
gunman.
Blake is a young man, dressed IN
blue serge suit very neat and clean.
He has nothing of the aspect of the
ordinary hobo or train rider. Officers
said last night that they were con-
4 vinced that this man and his supposed
4 companion, who shot at the officer,
! were planning some sort of holdup or
train robbery which was nipped in
!; the bud by the arrest of Blake. De-
tective Hart would offer no sugges-
tions in the matter saying that ne
!. only regretted that the other man had
]. not been caught and giving no opin-
i ion as to what the men were about.
Blake when interview in his cell at
| the city Jail by The Dispatch reporter
late last night, said that he had just
! come from Tucson! and was going back
i there. He said that he had relatives
in that city and had lived there for
/ two wears. He did not explain how he
4 happened to be in the wrong end Of
/ the railroad yards, but said that the
pistol which he had held in his hand
| in his pocket, according to the eof-
i ficer, had been given to him by a
1 Douglas woman whom ne mad been
j visiting.
! Blake said that he had no compan-
4 ion or accomplice in the yards and
4 was at loss to account for the man
, who fired shot at the officer and
4 himself. He advanced the theory that
i the shot might have been intended
1 for himself, but said he had no idea
4 who might have fired it. He SAID
(, that it frightened him very much, but
i laughed when he said it. Otflcers
secuted the idea that the man who
fired, at Hart was not friend OF
Blakes trying to free him from CUSTODY.
\ At midnight last night there were
an even dozen men in the city jail
who had been arrested following the
shooting at an officer officer IN the
railroad yards earlier in the evening
and police and deputy sheriffs were
still combing the "jungles' and yards
and the alleys of the city for more
suspects
No man carrying gun or having
ANYTHING about him to link hlm ~
identity with the man who fired on
the officer had been found but the
police were using every effort and al
trains leaving the yards were comDeo
from end to end both inside and out
It n