ACCIDENTALLY SHOT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19008, 4 May 1925, Page 8

ACCIDENTALLY SHOT.

THE MANGAPAI FATALITY. A TRAGIC DEMONSTRATION. [BY TELEGRAPH. OWN CORRESPONDENT. ] ■ WHANGAREI, Saturday. An inquest into the circumstances surrounding the death of David Miller, who was accidentally shot at Mangapai on Friday, was held to-day by Mr. J. D. MeKenzie and a jury of four. Herbert Stanley Carter deposed that the deceased and others had just came into the house and were cleaning their rifles. Witness went outside and got a repeating Winchester rifle. He was demonstrating how it worked. In order to do so he put a cartridge in the breach. The deceased at the time was sitting 6ft. away. After putting the cartridge in the breech and attempting to close it witness' thumb came in contact with the' trigger, resulting in the discharge of the weapon. The bullet hit the wood on the side of the arm-chair in which the deceased was sitting and, glancing off, entered his abdomen. The bullet was found in the clothes of the deceased -at the back of the body. A verdict was returned that David Miller came to his death, at Mangapai, on May 1, death being due to shock and loss of blood from a wound inflicted by a bullet accidentally discharged by Herbert Stanley Carter. FARM HAND LOSES AN ARM. GETTING THROUGH A FENCE. [by telegraph.—own" correspondent.] HAMILTON. Sunday. A shooting accident occurred at Ohaupo this afternoon when a farm hand, Frederick Charles Allen, aged 25, received a gunshot wound in his light arm. Allen f was getting through a fence, dragging his gun behind him. when the trigger caught in the wire and the gun was discharged. His arm was shattered and when he/was admitted to the Waikato Hospital the injured limb was amputated.