Sunday, February 5, 2023

Walter Klutzz Struck By Stray Bullet While Walking Down Street, Feb. 5, 1923

Walter Kluttz Wounded on Neck by Stray Bullet. . . Was Accidentally Struck While Walking in Front of Office of Dr. J.F. Reid

Walter Kluttz, employe of the Southeastern Express Company, was accidentally wounded Thursday afternoon when a stray bullet fired in the laundry of Henry Der Yen struck him in the neck, as he was walking in front of the office of Dr. J.F. Reid. Andrew Brice, negro, was arrested by the police and charged with the shooting.

According to police investigation, Brice was in the laundry talking to his wife, who is one of the ironers there. Just why he fired the pistol is not known, as he and his wife testified that the shooting was accidental. But immediately after the shot was fired Brice and his wife both ran, the woman going to her home here and Brice to his home in Kannapolis.

The bullet passed out of the glass in the front door of the laundry, struck a piece of wood that holds up the laundry sign, passed through the wood and struck Mr. Klutzz on the neck. The wound is very painful, but it is not believed to be serious.

Brice was arrested by the Kannapolis police officers. He testified that the shooting was accidental, and that he was just handing the pistol to his wife when it was discharged. She testified that she had not been quarreling with her husband, that she did not see the gun before she heard the report, and that she ran from the laundry because she was “scared, too scared” to remember whether she left by the rear or front door.

The State tried to prove that Brice was trying to shoot his wife when he fired the gun, and used the running of the two negroes as evidence that everything was not as rosy between the pair as they tried to make it appear when they testified.

From page 3 of The Concord Times, Monday, Feb. 5, 1923

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