FATAL GUN ACCIDENT.

Patea Mail, Volume IX, Issue 1057, 9 July 1883, Page 3

FATAL GUN ACCIDENT.

A Boy shoots Ms Bx'otliei*. (PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.) BLENHEIM, July 7. A horrible accident with a gun occurred in town to-day. A loud report was heard at the back of Mr John Smith’s (tinsmith) shop, by two persons who at the time were standing talking on the footpath in front of Smith’s premises. On hearing the report they went across the street, and, as they were crossing, a sou of Smith ran wildly out of the shop and down the street. They at once entered the shop, and, seeing nothing in the front part, went into the back room, where, to their horror, they found a young lad lying dead on the floor, with a pool of blood near his head. The body was lying doubled up in a corner, against the door in a sitting posture) head being between his legs. On examination it was found that there was the wound of a bullet on the left side of the face, about an inch and a-half between the left eye, and an inch from the nostrils. Frank Smith, brother of the deceased, states that the gun was brought in at dinner time by a settler for repair. He put a cap on this to try it, and then, thinking he would try another gun standing close by which had been brought in about six weeks ago, lifted it down and put a cap on it. Just as he cocked it, his brother John ran across from the opposite side of the back shop, and, as Frank pulled the trigger,*his brother received the charge it contained full in the face. Throwing the gun down on the bench, and stupified with what he had done, he rushed out of the shop towards home.