DEATH IN GARDEN

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 183, 20 August 1937, Page 7

DEATH IN GARDEN

Boy Shoots Stepsister During Tragic Game Itelating the dramatic story of how a playful romp around the garden ended in his stepsister being shot deud, a youth stated at a recent Gloucestershire inquest: "As I said in fun 'Now I've got you,' tlio gun went off. " A verdict of "aceidental death* ' was Teturn«d on Nellie Elizabeth Smith, aged 23, a Sunday scIxqoI teaeher, of Woodmancote, near Cirencester. In evid'ence, Reginald Cripps, the stepbrotlier, stated: "Nellie Smith eame out of the door as I arrived homo. I steppcd on hcr foot in fun. . I van a little distanco and called, 'Old Nell Smith.' Sho ran after mo round the sheds and across the lawn. "I wont into the house and locked the door, and looked through the bedroom window. She saw me, and pokcd a stick througli the window, and I tried to catch hold of it. I crept back to the door, and I saw a gun behind the door. ''.I unlocked the door, picked up tho, gun, and as I opened tho door I pointed the gun and wayed it up in the air. As I said in fun, 'Now, l've got you,' the gun exploded." When asked by the coroner if he knew the gun was loaded, Cripps replied: "I remembored later that I had not unloa'ded it." Cripps addod that he always got on well with his stepsister. Mrs. Smith, the girl's stepmother, stated that Nellie Smitlf and Reginald Cripps wero on tho best of terms, and that, so far as sho could tell, everything was done in good humour. George Joshua Freeman, a farmer, stated that when he heard tho roport^ of a gUn ho rexnarkod to a companion: "That boy has shot himself or soxneono." In roply to tho coroner, Freeman stated that the tragic happening did not copie as a surprise to hixn. "I liave heard him tlireraten her on previous occasions," he added. Rccallcd by tho coroner, Mrs. Smith stated tlxcre had been sonie disnar^cment between hor family and the Freeman family owing to straying of b'x'eeman's cattle. '