FATHER SHOT AFTER WHIPPING HIS SON.
Neighbor, Who Protested, Used Gun in Self-Defense, He Says.
SURRENDERS TO POLICE.
William F. George Dies of Wound Early This Morning.
Incensed, he says, because a neighbor, William F. George, a water contractor was beating his 17-year-old son, Fred, Clarence M. Smith shot and fatally wounded George near Fairmount park yesterday. After the shooting Smith boarded a street car and went to police headquarters, where he surrendered to Captain Thomas P. Flahive.
The injured man was taken from his home, near Maple and Kentucky avenues, to the Independence sanitarium. He died shortly after 1 o'clock this morning.
Smith told Captain Flahive he shot George in self-defense. He said George was coming toward him after he had remonstrated with George for beating the boy. He lives at 309 Home street, in the Fairmount addition, one block from George's home. He is 46 years old.
"I saw George beating the boy with a buggy whip this afternoon," he said, "and I did not think it was right. I was in the next yard. When George threw down the whip and struck his son with his fists I called out to him:
" 'Mr. George, you are a damn coward,'
"I wanted to draw his attention away from the boy I have six children myself and could not stand the sight any longer. George quit beating the boy and started toward me, saying, 'I'm going to get you now.' I ran home and called to my wife to get my old army rifle. I loaded it in the yard. George was still coming toward me and I shouted to him, 'You had better leave me alone.' He paid no attention to that. I fired and he fell."
Isaac Johnson, an uncle of Fred George, the boy over whom the quarrel occurred, was in the George yard at the time.
"Fred worked all morning with me while I was driving an ice wagon," Johnston declared. "This afternoon he wanted to go away and play, but his father ordered him to help him at home. Fred objected and his father took a buggy whip to him and also slapped him. When Smith remonstrated, Mr. George threatened to 'attend to him after he finished the kid.' "
Smith sat in his cell yesterday afternoon with his head bowed on his arms.
"I couldn't stand to see that boy mistreated," he said, and his voice was husky as he talked. "I have six children of my own. I did not want to hit the man, but I intended to frighten him away. He was curing at me and threatening to beat me when I pulled the trigger."
Smith said that when he first noticed George whipping his boy Mrs. George was trying to intercede in her son's behalf.
The bullet from the army rifle penetrated George's abdomen and barely missed his spinal column.
Smith is being held at police headquarters. Shannon C. Douglass, Jr., assistant prosecuting attorney, began an investigation of the shooting yesterday.
