Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-06-02
5 DIE IN DETROIT
RACKET WARE ARE.
Unidentified Body, Two Po-
lice, Two Italians, Toll
of Gun Battles.
BY the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
DETROIT, Mich, June Gang
sters' guns, breaking into activity after
several weeks of quiet, took five lives
in the metropolitan area during the
week end, two of the victims being
policemen, who were shot down from
an automobile which they stopped in
their investigation of a hit-run acct
dent
The fifth victim, an italian who was
not Immediately identified, was sent to
his death with four bullets in his head
and body at daybreak today. Police
connected this killing with the shoot
ing of two Italians in a fish market
Saturday afternoon.
The shots awakened Ira Berendt and
his wife, who live at Nine Mile road and
Jerome street. They found the body.
The policemen, members of the force
of Crosse Pointe Park, an exclusive
residential district, were believed to
have been killed by rum-runnerS. Two
men were held in connection with this
crime. A third suspect, arrested with
a revolver in his pocket, was able to
convince police he had nothing to do
with it.
The dead officers, described by their
chief as the best men in the depart
ment," were Erhardt w. Meyer, %, and
Claude Lanstra, "a.
Meyer and Lanstra were sent out to
look for car which knocked down and
seriously injured Mrs. Ina Piacso, Sc,
of Highland Park Half a block from
the Crosse Point Park police station on
East Jefferson avenue, near the outlet
of Lake ST. Clair, where rum runners
are known to land cargoes of liquor, the
police car came upon an automobile
apparently bearing license numbers of
he ~
out to question its occupants.
Men in the car began firing as he
approached, and Patrolman Meyer fell,
shot through the head. Lanstra opened
fire, but in a few seconds slumped over
the wheel of the police car, shot three
times in the head and once under the
heart. A witness said 35 shots were
fired.
Detectives of the Detroit Italian SQUAD
were called in. During Sunday they
found bullet-pierced car with the re-
ported license number and arrested
Frank Demercurio, in whose garage it
was located, his father Sam, and Frank
Salanone. The men are held for ques-
tioning.
Detectives said they found gangland
deserted Sunday. There had been a
double Staying Saturday night and
police sought to connect the two crimes.
Gaspardi Scibilia and Sam Parrino
were shot in what officers said they
thought was a rum-runners' feud. Thus
far the only connecting link is the fact
that the bullets which took the lives
Of the patrolmen are of the same
caliber as those which killed the
hoodlums.
Detroit detectives saw a connection
between the fifth killing and the STAY
ing Saturday afternoon of Gaspere
Scibilia and Samuel Parino, who were
shot by two men as they sat at lunch in
the rear room Of fish market on YER
nor Highway east. Scibilia was killed
instantly and Parino died several hours
later in Receiving Hospital. He had
been conscious but gave no information
to police.
Police were unable to trace the con-
nections of the two victims, one of
whom, Scibilia, had $400 in cash in his
pocket. They had been arrested on va
rious charges but never convicted.