ambulance. Upon its arrival the
wounded officer was placed in it and conveyed to the hospital. An
examination by the house surgeon revealed the fact that the bullet had
taken an upward course. In the opinion of the surgeon the wound was a
dangerous one.

But the best proof of the fact that the officers accosted the two colored
men and without any warrant or other justification attempted to arrest
them, and did actually seize and begin to club one of them, is shown by
Officer Mora's own statement. The officer was wounded and had every reason
in the world to make his side of the story as good as possible. His
statement was made to a _Picayune_ reporter and the same was published on
the twenty-fifth inst., and is as follows:

I was in the neighborhood of Dryades and Washington Streets, with
Sergeant Aucoin and Officer Cantrell, when three Negro women came up and
told us that there were two suspicious-looking Negroes sitting on a step
on Dryades Street, between Washington and Sixth. We went to the place
indicated and found two Negroes. We interrogated them as to who they
were, what they were doing and how long they had been here. They replied
that they were working for some one and had been in town three days. At
about this stage the larger of the two Negroes got up and I grabbed him.
The Negro pulled, but I held fast, and he finally pulled me into the
street. Here I began using my billet, and the Negro jerked from my grasp
and ran. He then pulled a gun and fired. I pulled my gun and returned
the fire, each of us firing about three shots. I saw the Negro stumble
several times, and I thought I had shot him, but he ran away and I don't
know whether any of my shots took effect. Sergeant Aucoin in the
meantime held the other man fast. The man was about ten feet from me
when he fired, and the three Negresses who told us about the men stood
away about twenty-five feet from the shooting.

Thus far in the proceeding the Monday night episode results in Officer
Mora lying in the station wounded in the hip; Leonard Pierce, one of the
colored men, locked up in the station, and Robert Charles, the other
colored man, a fugitive, wounded in the leg and sought for by the entire
police force of New Orleans. Not sought for, however, to be placed under
arrest and given a fair trial and punished if found guilty according to
the law of the land, but sought for by a host of enraged, vindictive and
fear