Image TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage TileImage Tile
Image size: 4608x6656 Scale: 35% - PanoJS3
Page overview thumbnail

Article text

Killer Dead; Big Hunt
Ends In Siege Of Home
LONDON. June 6: Armed policemen who since
Monday night had been hunting for the gunman who
killed a policeman brought him out dead from his
home in Chatham today after a siege in which they
used tear-gas bombs.
The gunman, Alan Derek
Poole (20), an army deserter,
had two Sten-gun wounds in
the chest. He had shot him
self. He had been sought since
he fatally wounded Constable
Alan Baxter (33) on Monday
night with a Sten gun, as the
policeman stepped from a pat
rol car to look for a masked
gunman who had shot at some
boys on the outskirts of
Chatham.
Directed by army "walkie
taklie" radio sets, 300 armed
policemen, 50 soldiers and 20
sailors beat the woods and
valleys around Chatham last
night for Poole. An urgent
call to the Chatham police
station this morning sent 100
armed policemen rushing in
motor cars and coaches to the
house, which Poole was seen
entering.
Poole's mother, Mrs. Dorothy
May Poole, first found that the
killer was in the house. He
told her to get out. She went
to a neighbour's home. The
father then found his son had
barricaded himself in the attic.
Poole chased his father out of
the house and fired a shot from
the Sten gun as he ran away.
The police, after having fired
shots into the house, called on
Poole to surrender and threw
gas bombs. They then heard
a burst from Poole's Sten gun
inside the building.
While hundreds watched
from barriers at the ends of
the street armed police of
ficers wearing respirators
crept cautiously into the
house. Other police and
soldiers kept rifles trained on
the doors and windows.
The police launched a fur
ther tear-gas attack on the
house, during which further
shots were exchanged. A police
officer then went into the
house and found Poole's body
slumped in the raftered loft.
Women wept and some
fainted as Poole's body was
carried out of the building and
placed on a stretcher in the
roadway. Another police of
ficer, with a gas mask hanging
loosely from his neck, came
out carrying the Sten gun.
"Best Thing"
As the police moved in to
attack, Poole's father, with
bowed head, walked down
the road, his hands deep in
his pockets. Afterwards he
murmured sadly: "That's the
best thing that could have hap
pened."
Neighbours, who had been
hurriedly evacuated, returned
to their homes as the police
and soldiers began to clear up
after the siege. Six members
of Poole's family, including a
child in arms, hurried from
the backdoor of the house be
fore the siege started:
The battle took place only a
short distance from the hos
pital where the wife of the
dead policeman is a patient.
Mrs. Baxter, who had a still
born child on June 1. was
taken on a stretcher yesterday
to see her husband before he
died.-Reuters.
$