Press enter after choosing selection

Officer O'mara A Target For Three Thieves

Officer O'mara A Target For Three Thieves image
Parent Issue
Day
15
Month
May
Year
1903
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

OFFICER O'MARA A TARGET FOR THREE THIEVES

A Dozen Revolver Shots Were Exchanged Yesterday Evening

Between the Officers and Thieves Who Had Dumped Their Stealings from a Freight Car Near Bridge on Whitmore Lake Road

A lively fight between Marshal Kelsey, Patrolmen O'Mara and Collins and three thieves took place along the Michigan Central tracks near where the road crosses the Whitmore Lake road a little before 2 o'clock Thursday morning, in which the thieves opened fire on Officer O'Mara, who formed a fine target on the west end of the railroad bridge.

At five minutes after one o'clock in the night Marshal Kelsey was aroused oy a telephone from the Michigan Central, which said that a man walking down the railroad track had seen some thieves making way with plunder east of the railroad bridge near the Whitmore lake road. The marshal's whistle quickly brought Officers O'Mara and Collins to his assistance and getting two rigs they drove out there. The report as to the location of the thieves and their plunder proved incorrect in that they were on the west instead of the east side of the bridge. The officers separated to surround their men. O'Mara was close to the bridge, Kelsey in the center and Collins near the road.

Not finding the plunder near the east end of the bridge and thinking he saw something at the other end, O'Mara started to cross the bridge. He saw three men in the darkness when he got near the west end of the bridge and accosted them. Their reply was made with a revolver. O'Mara made a good target as he loomed up against the sky on the bridge, but he stood his ground and began using his own revolver. Kelsey, who was on the other side of the river, opened fire at the place from which the flashes came and Collins came running up the track. But when the officers opened fire the thieves ran. They ran into a wire fence with such force that it went down with a terrific noise.

The thieves fired five shots at O'Mara, O'Mara fired four times and Kelsey fired twice. While O'Mara, against the sky line was a good target for the thieves, they in the darkness furnished a poor target for the officers. No one was hit. Aside from the breaking down of the fence the officers could not tell where the thieves went.

What had happened was that two cases of shoes, one case of rubber boots, one case of dry goods and one of corsets had been dumped from a moving freight car. The thieves had broken open the boxes and were loading a boat with the plunder when the officers arrived.

Kelsey and O'Mara got in their rig and drove north a half mile, not finding anyone they returned. Hearing a dog bark up the road, Kelsey and Collins drove back up the road some two miles. Coming back they thought they saw a man crossing the road and succeeded in finding him and hand-cuffed him. Kelsey brought in his prisoner while Collins searched all over the Tower place, in the barns, etc., but unsuccessfully. Previous to this arrest the officers held up a man coming down the tracks with a satchel, but he proved to be a local Salvation Army man, and was released.

The prisoner gave his name as Peter Powers, but this morning Officer Lally, of Detroit, who was here on the Edwards case, recognized him as Lloyd Diamond, a Detroit crook.

Later in the day Detective Burrows, of the Central, and Officer Lally rounded up two men who were taken to jail on suspicion of being Diamond's two companions.