BOY’S TRAGIC DEATH

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19997, 24 July 1939, Page 13

BOY’S TRAGIC DEATH

FATAL GUNSHOT WOUND AMUSEMENT PAR LOUR DISCHARGE OF RIFLE (Per Press Association.) WANGANUI, this day. Struck in the right breast by a rifle bullet discharged from a gun in an amusement parlour in Victoria Avenue on Saturday, Eric Charles Hawkins, aged 14i, a son of Mr. and Mrs. F. J. Hawkins, 78 Keith street, Wanganui, expired while being rushed to the public hospital in the St. John free ambulance. A few minutes after noon on Saturday the youth, with a companion aged 16 years, was in the amusement parlour, the proprietor of which was absent at the time. A .22 Winchester rifle was being handled by Hawkins' companion, who pressed the trigger, and a bullet struck Hawkins in the fleshy part of the right hand which was raised to his chest and then entered his right tjrcast. First aid measures were applied by William Ramsay, Aramoho, who had been waiting to catch a tram, and who was called when several youths hurried out of the amusement parlour with the announcement that .a boy had been shot. Hawkins was unconscious when placed in the ambulance, and when the hospital was reached Dr. H. W. Cook could only pronounce life extinct. The inquest 'was opened c« Saturday afternoon before Mr. S. M. Dixon, coroner, and was adjourned till Thursday.