SHOT HIS FRIEND.
FATAL RABBITING ACCIDENT. HEAD BLOWN OFF. ' MELBOURNE, Feb. 23. At Wilson’s Point, a seaside resort, near Werribee, yesterday, Robert Stafford, aged 33, married, of Footscray, who was a member of a rabbiting party, had his head blown off by an accidental shot from a comrade’s gun. Information gleaned by the Werribee police indicates that at the time the fatal shot was fired, Stafford and a friend, Edwin Robert Warden, were hunting rabbits with ferrets along a brick wall, in an open paddock. A ferret had been sent into a burrow, and Stafford was kneeling at its mouth ready to catch any escaping rabbit. Warden stood six feet away with his shot gun raised. Suddenly a rabbit appeared. Apparently Warden thought it had escaped Stafford, for he immediately fired. At the moment he pulled the trigger, Stafford is said to have stood up and stepped right in the line of fire, six feet from the mouth of the gun. The charge struck him full in the face, killing him instantly. Stafford was a stevedore by occupation, and he had a wife and several young children.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MS19250309.2.63
Bibliographic details
Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 83, 9 March 1925, Page 5
Word Count
187SHOT HIS FRIEND. Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 83, 9 March 1925, Page 5
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Manawatu Standard. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in