YOUTH SHOT DEAD

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 April 1933, Page 10

YOUTH SHOT DEAD

FRIEND’S TRAGIC MISTAKE

BULLADELAH, March 29.

While out shooting at Bo’olambayte yesterday, Leo Burdekin, aged 19, of Boolambayte, was fatally shot by Ernest Newman, aged IS, also of Boolambayte.

Burdekin and his younger brother had taken their shotgun to work with them yesterday morning, hoping to shoot pigeons. After work, about 2.30 p.m., they were joined by Newman, who was also going shooting. Newman later left his friends and, after talking to some timber-getters nearby, said that he had not had a shot and was going to see if he could shoot some birds.

Newman said that while he was shooting birds in a dense brush he heard twigs crackling in the undergrowth. He turned and peered over a log and saw what he thought was portion of a dingo. He fired his shotgun from a distance of about 20 yards and was horrified to hear a scream. He rushed into the brush and found that he had shot Burdekin, who was unconscious.

Newman unsuccessfully attempted to extricate Burdekin from the scrub. Burdekin’s scream and Newman’s frantic calls for help attracted the attention of the timber-getters. Medical aid was summoned, and the patient was carried several miles down’ a mountain on an improvised stretcher to the road. He was then taken to hospital at Bulladelah, eight miles, by car, but died shortly after admission about three hours after the accident. Burdekin was shot in the head, face, and back with pellets. He was hatless, and his fair hair had been mistaken for a dingo.