Senior Constable
Frederick Edward JONES
YEAR OF DEATH
1943
JURISDICTION
Victoria
DETAILS OF DEATH
About 8.20 p.m. Monday 1 March 1943 Senior Constable Jones was shot dead whilst standing at the intersection of Church Street and Bridge Road Richmond. The murderer Norman Morris Searle had fired from a passing taxi cab in which he was a passenger. Searle was arrested later the same night and charged with the murder of the Constable and with shooting at the cab driver. It was alleged he confessed to shooting Jones by mistake and in fact had meant to murder another Constable against whom he held a grudge. He denied this at his trial claiming he had been under the influence of alcohol and could not recall the incident. He was convicted of murder at the Melbourne Supreme Court and sentenced to life imprisonment.
