SHOOTING FATALITY

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXII, Issue LXXII, 9 July 1917, Page 7

SHOOTING FATALITY

BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION,

CJHRISTCHURCH, July 9. A shocking shooting fatality occurred in the Rangiora district yesterday afternoon. The victim was a boy aged twelve years, named James Beaton, second son of Peter Beaton, living on Gresson's road. Th.c boy, with an elder brother, Wilson Beajton,' aged seventeen years, left with a shotgun and pea rifle intending to shoot spaz-rows in some trees near by. The elder boy shot a sparrow with the pea rifle, and his brother picked up, the bird and ran back to the house with it. On his reiturn he had to pass along the back of a fowlhouse and the elder lad, who was at the far end of this building taking aim .it a bird -high up in a tree, heard his brother coming towards him and drop, ped the muzzle of the gun just as' the smaller boy slipped out from behind the building. The trigger was accidentally pulled and the boy shot through the heart, dropping dead on the spot.