+SHOT AN OFFICER+

The bloodiest week which New Orleans has known since the massacre of the
Italians in 1892 was ushered in Monday, July 24, by the inexcusable and
unprovoked assault upon two colored men by police officers of New Orleans.
Fortified by the assurance born of long experience in the New Orleans
service, three policemen, Sergeant Aucoin, Officer Mora and Officer
Cantrelle, observing two colored men sitting on doorsteps on Dryades
street, between Washington Avenue and 6th Streets, determined, without a
shadow of authority, to arrest them. One of the colored men was named
Robert Charles, the other was a lad of nineteen named Leonard Pierce. The
colored men had left their homes, a few blocks distant, about an hour
prior, and had been sitting upon the doorsteps for a short time talking
together. They had not broken the peace in any way whatever, no warrant
was in the policemen's hands justifying their arrest, and no crime had
been committed of which they were the suspects. The policemen, however,
secure in the firm belief that they could do anything to a Negro that they
wished, approached the two men, and in less than three minutes from the
time they accosted them attempted to put both colored men under arrest.
The younger of the two men, Pierce, submitted to arrest, for the officer,
Cantrelle, who accosted him, put his gun in the young man's face ready to
blow his brains out if he moved. The other colored man, Charles, was made
the victim of a savage attack by Officer Mora, who used a billet and then
drew a gun and tried to kill Charles. Charles drew his gun nearly as
quickly as the policeman, and began a duel in the street, in which both
participants were shot. The policeman got the worst of the duel, and fell
helpless to the sidewalk. Charles made his escape. Cantrelle took Pierce,