Description
“Lige Birch Shot A Man” - - Lige Birch, colored ex-soldier, is in the county jail, charged with shooting Henry Burris, with intent to kill. Birch and Burris had a fight Sunday night near the Platte River bridge, and Birch got the worst of it. He straightway went home and procured a gun, and in a short time appeared at the door of Ed Sanders’s house where Burris had gone, following the fight. The gun was in evidence, and Burris started to run upstairs. Birch fired by Sanders and hit Burris in the hip, making an ugly wound. Birch tried to finish his work but Burris managed to hide from him in the dark. The sheriff was notified, though the negroes were too excited to relate connectedly what had happened. Birch could not be found at home, but the sheriff gave his mother to understand that the man with the gun would be better off if he gave himself up rather than to run away. Birch was soon found on the street, and he surrendered himself calmly and in careless manner went to jail. At the preliminary hearing Birch was bound over to the circuit court, bond being fixed at $1,000. Birch is reported to have made a statement that sounds strange. It is not clear whether he wants to appear as a bad, bad man, or whether a sudden spasm of truthfulness affected him. Anyhow, he is declared to have told the officers that he didn't want anyone to try to make out he was drunk when he did the shooting, for he wasn’t. He knew just what he was doing, he is said to have insisted, and went after that nigger to kill him. Birch faces a penalty for his Sunday evening’s sport, if convicted, of 2 years or more in the penitentiary. Both men were in the army, but Burris did not go to France. Birch was the first colored man to return to Platte City from overseas, and brought the first full fighting equipment to be seen here.Date(s) of Creation
6/5/1919
