THE FOXTON TRAGEDY

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVI, Issue 3449, 24 November 1932, Page 5

THE FOXTON TRAGEDY

VICTIM'S BROTHER RETURNS HOME. SAYS SHOOTING ACCIDENTAL. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) Levin, this day. The sixteen-year-old youth, Roy Easton, who was missing after the shooting tragedy at his father's farm on Tuesday afternoon, in which his brother, Jack Easton, lost his life, returned home last evening. The boy stated that the shooting was accidental. He and his brother quarrelled over the latter's late arrival at the milking shed. He went to the house, got a gun to go rabbit shooting, and was returning by the cowshed to tell his father and his brother that they could finish the milking themselves, when he tripped on a sack, the gun being discharged in the fall. He fled in panic when he saw his brother stagger. The inquest on Jack Easton was opened at Levin this morning and adjourned till December 9. Roy Easton was subsequently charged before Justices of the Peace with the murder of John Spencer Seabury Easton. The police were granted a remand to Wellington for seven days, stating that a further remand will probably be necessary. A shocking shooting tragedy occurred at a farm on the Foxton-Levin highway near Foxton on Tuesday. During- milking operations, which were being carried out by Mr. R. Easton and his two sons, an argument occurred between the boys. Roy, aged 16, left the shed, and shortly afterwards the father heard the report of a gun, and, looking round, saw his eldest son, Jack Easton, single, aged 20, get up from his seat, stagger to the fence, and collapse. The younger boy was seen running towards some bush on the property. The father rushed to a neighbour's place and telephoned for a doctor, but Jack died within ten minutes from a gunshot wound in the chest. A single barrel shotgun, with a discharged cartridge, belonging to the house, was picked up alongside the cowbails twenty yards from the body. The family has been on the farm only three months. The victim of the tragedy was well known and popular.