A SHOOTING TRAGEDY

Otago Witness, Issue 3117, 10 December 1913, Page 37

A SHOOTING TRAGEDY

STORY OF YOUTHFUL FOLLY. INQUEST AT INVERCARGILL. (From Och Own Correspondent.) INVERCARGILL, December 7. With a revolver and a pea-rifle held about the level of his hips, a youth at Kew. a few miles from Invercargill, called to Mrs Martin on Friday night; “I’m Buffalo Bill.” There was a click, a report, and a woman's scream followed. Mrs Martin stumbled into her kitchen, and in a few minuets expired as the result of a revolver wound in the breast. The story of how the shot came to be fired was told at an inquest on Saturday. Dr .1. G. Crawford said that at about 9 o’clock on Friday he received a telephone call to go to Mrs Martin’s residence at Kew. On his arrival there be found Mrs Martin, the deceased, lying on her back on the kitchen floor. He made an examination and found that she was dead. Ihe clothing of the upper part of the body had been loosened and was saturated with blood. He discovered a bullet wound in the chest, situated slightly to the left of the middle line and on a level with the second rib. Death was due to hemorrhage of the aorta as the result of a bullet wound. * George M'Dermott, who was obviously very distressed, stated that he had been in Mr Martin’s employ for about two months. Bebore 10 o’clock on the night of the fatality he went- around the edge of the bush shooting birds and rabbits with a pea-rifle. He returned to the house for tea and again went shooting. He came back to the house between 8 and 8.30 o’clock and practised shooting with the rifle at a target erected near the corner of the house. He then asked Mrs Martin if she knew where the revolver was, and she told him that it was in her son’s room. A little girl brought him the revolver, and he had some shots with it at the target. The revolver took the same ammunition as the rifle. He could not say how many shots he fired, but before he finished he pulled the trigger about 10 times to see if there were any live cartridges left in the chambers. There was no discharge, and he was satisfied that it was empty. He then went and picked up the rifle*, which was lying near the target, and pointing it in the air he also tested it to make sure that it was not loaded. The deceased and a little girl named Elsie Buck were standing in the doorway, and he said to them : “I’m Buffalo Bill,” and pointed the revolver and the riffe at about his hips’ height in the direction of the deceased and the child. As he said it he pulled both hammers, the revolver exploding and shooting Mrs Martin. Ho never heard her say anything, but she gave a scream and turning round staggered into the kitchen. He rushed into the house, left the rifle and revolver in the scullery, and went for assistance. The revolver had not, to his knowledge, missed fire. He loaded the revolver twice, inserting six cartridges each time. All the cartridges exploded the first time, but apparently one missed fire on the second occasion. Wm. George Martin, draper, said he was the deceased woman’s husband. He was out at a meeting on the night in question and returned home shortly after 9 o’clock. When he came home his wife was dead, and the doctor told him that she had died almost instantly. The pearifle M‘Dermott was using belonged to his elder son and the revolver to the second son. M‘Dermott had permission to use the weapons just whenever he liked. Knowing all the circumstances of the case he was more than satisfied that it was purely an accident. M ‘Dermott was nearly out of his mind and he did everything in his power to console him under the circumstances. Sergeant Simpson explained that the revolver had been examined by Mr Strang, manager for Messrs M’Carthy's, and it was found that one of the chambers missed fire. The coroner returned a verdict that the deceased was accidentally shot by having a revolver pointed at her in play. He also stated that he would make a suggestion to the Education Board, scout masters, and territorial officers that attention be drawn to the necessity of the exercise of care in the use of firearms. He further stated that everyone who knew how to use a firearm always kept the barrel pointed down, the only time it was raised being when aiming at something. Every now and then they read in the newspapers of such accidents happening. and it was. the silliest possible thing anyone could do to point a firearm at another person.