SHOCKING SHOOTING TRAGEDY

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 138, 12 June 1926, Page 25

SHOCKING SHOOTING TRAGEDY

TWO DEAD -ND FOUR INJURED. As the result of a shooting affair recently at Dawdon Colliery, near Seaham Harbour, Durham, George Burnett (45), farm hand, at Bone Hill Cottages, Dawdon, and his son, Edward (3), are dead, while four other members of the family have been removed to hospital suffering from bullet wounds. A neighbour named Ashworth alleged that he saw Burnett and his wife struggling out6ide the house. Burnett had a revolver, which Ashworth snatched from him. Mrs. : Burnett asked him to try to get the child out of the house, but before he could do so Burnett rushed in and locked the door. Four of the children were then discovered outside wounded. They were Mary Annie (10), bullet wound in the left shoulder; George Whitfield (14), bullet wound in right shoulder; May Florence (7), bullet wound on right side of chin; Laura (5), bullet wound in the left shoulder. All were removed to hospital. The police arrived and hurst open the door to find Burnett dead on the floor with his throat cut, and the youngest child, Edward (3), was also dead with his throat cut and a bullet wound in his head. Burnett was a quiet steady man, and as far as can be gathered there was no trouble in the family, and no reason can be assigned for the tragedy. A Coroner's jury returned a verdict that George Burnett wilfully murdered his three-year-old son and committed suicide whilst of unsound mfhd.