May 3, 2025
KICKING OF POODLE STARTS FUSILLADE.
Woman Empties Gun at man She Says Abused Pet, Then Hit Her.
The resounding kick on the ribs of a small poodle dog, owned by Mrs. Hazel Baker, 705 Oak street, was the indirect cause, it is said, of a shower of bullets which sang about the ears of Thomas Stevens, a chauffeur, believed by Mrs. Baker to be the one who administered the kick. In the presence of 100 or more speculators Mrs. Baker emptied her revolver at Stevens.
"I was sitting on the porch with a neighbor," Mrs. Baker said. "My pet poodle was trotting about on the sidewalk below. Two men came along and when the dog got in their way they kicked him off of the sidewalk. The kick resulted in a resounding thump and the dog ran yelping and limping away. It made me mad."
" 'I'd as soon you'd kick me," I said. One of the men growled something and ran up on the porch. I asked him what he meant by doing that. I had never seen him before. He evidently had been drinking. He grabbed me by the wrist and commenced to beat me with his umbrella. You can see the mark here on my neck and wrist. He also hit me on the head. I jerked away and ran into my home. I was already mad over the way he kicked my dog and hitting me didn't make it any better. I got my husband's pistol and ran out on the porch and commenced shooting at him.
After the second shot, witnesses say, the man stopped, cursed Mrs. Baker, and walked deliberately away. The first shot brought a crowd of curious spectators, but the shots that followed quickly scattered them. Bullets lodged in houses along the west side of the street. hearing shots and seeing a man running, Joseph Halvey, a detective on his way to supper, got off a street car and stopped the fugitive, who attempted to resist. Bystanders, who did not understand the situation, and did not see why a man should be arrested for being shot at, attempted to interfere. Two special officers in plain clothes assisted Halvey in holding his prisoner. At police headquarters the man gave the name Thomas Stevens. He said he is 25 years old, a chauffeur, and that he lives at 1312 Main street. He declared the shooting was unprovoked.
Believing that she had wounded the man, Miss Baker fled to a wholesale liquor house near Sixth and Walnut street, where her husband, H. C. Baker, is employed. He told her to go to police headquarters and give herself up. She did so and learned that the supposed victim had not been hit. She told her story to Captain Anderson and was released.
"I'm awfully glad I didn't kill him," she said. "While he deserved some punishment, I don't want such a deed on my head.
Some of the neighbors corroborated her statements. She was ordered to report to Chief Ghent of the detective department pending further investigation of the case.
