SHOOTING TRAGEDY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 304, 7 October 1935, Page 6

SHOOTING TRAGEDY

JEALOUSY THE MOTIVE.

THE LOWER HtITT SENSATION

(Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, October 6,

Further particulars regarding the affair at Lower Hutt on Friday night indicate that Maurice Power, aged 37, single, accountant, left his boarding-house about 10 p.m. wearing some clothing over his night attire. lan Trask came down Pretoria Street with a girl, and was shot in the back of the head with a. .22 Winchester repeating rifle. Trask fell to the ground, and the girl, hardly realising what had happened, bent over him. Trask murmured something about the girl clearing out and getting assistance, which she did. - Power put the rifle in his mouth and shot himself dead.

R. Burgess, who lives in the street, was returning to his home at the time and heard -the shot. He saw Trask fall and assisted him into the house. Later Trask was removed to the Wellington Hospital. His condition is reported by the hospital authorities to, be favourable.

It has been stated that jealousy was probably the motive for the shooting. Power had been keeping company with a young woman who lived near his house at Pretoria Street, Lower Hutt, but it is understood that they had decided to part. On Friday night .she met Trask, and lie was escorting her home when the shooting occurred. It lias been ascertained that Power recently borrowed the rifle from another Lower Hutt resident, saying that he wanted to shoot blackbirds.