The Beatrice Daily Express

NEGRO FIGHTS TO DEATH.
Sheriff Mortally Wounded and Three Men Killed.
FOUR OTHERS SERIOUSLY SHOT.
Officers Are Fired on by Desperado and Latter Is Shot and Thrown in Burning Building--Town in Heat of Great Excitement.

Tuscumbia, Ala., April 7. Three men are dead, three mortally wounded and four seriously wounded as the result of Sheriff Gassaway attempting to arrest Will Reynolds, a desperate negro.

The dead: Hugh Jones, Bob Wallace, Will Reynolds.

Fatally wounded: Sheriff Charles Gassaway, shot through the arm and abdomen; Will Gassaway, shot through the abdomen; P. A. Prout, shot through the stomach.

All the foregoing casualties, except the death of Reynolds himself, are the result of the deadly fire of Reynolds with a Winchester. The negro was, in turn, riddled and thrown into a fire.

Yesterday Sheriff Gassaway went to a negro settlement to arrest Will Reynolds for obtaining goods under false pretense. The officer was met by the negro, who opened fire with a Winchester, wounding the sheriff and immediately firing upon the deputy, Will Gassaway, who was some 300 yards away, mortally wounding him. As soon as possible every man in town who could procure a gun was in the neighborhood, but owing to the location none dared to venture within the open space. Dynamite was procured and the house in which the negro was barricaded was fired upon, but to no effect. Captain Simpson of the Wheeler Rifles arrived with 12 guns and 1,000 cartridges, which were distributed among 12 picked men. This company was stationed around the house and riddled it, but the negro had taken refuge in the cellar and returned the fire, killing Jones and wounding Jim Finney. Coal oil was then procured and the house in which the negro was located was fired by the Wheeler Rifles, who had arrived on the scene. The negro took refuge in a shed and opened fire, killing Wallace and wounding Jesse Davis, but the people and some militiamen riddled the negro and the crowd, numbering 1,000, grabbed the body and threw it in the burning building. Wallace, who was killed, was closing in on the negro, who shot him through the body. Relic seekers cut off the negro's fingers and such parts of the body as could be procured. Three houses were burned in the effort to reach the negro. Several horses were killed in the battle. It is reported that the sheriff and his brother cannot live. So deadly was the negro's aim that it was possibly an hour before the body of Prout could be recovered. Not a shot fired by Reynolds failed to count when those he was firing upon could be plainly seen by him.