SHOOTING MYSTERY

Hokitika Guardian, 13 August 1926, Page 1

SHOOTING MYSTERY

ROY’S STORY CLEARS POSITION. f [[jr,Y TELEGRAPH- —PER PRESS ASSOCIATION. . ..AUCKLAND, Aug.. 12. j The mysterious shooting of the. ,1b i year-old lad, Mervyn Hoe, at the hom< j !of his brother, Joseph. Hoe, a soldiei 1 settler of Pimi, was cleared up this j miorning when the injured youth made j Ibis statement to Detective Seigeani j (O’Brien. Previously lie told the police j ftliat. about ten minutes to one jester- | .day morning, after finishing his. home r work, lie had gone for a short walk ill [ :a paddock adjoining the house before i retiring. He alleged tli'at when one i 'hundred yards from his brother’s house . ‘lie saw. the .outline of a man, and. that -the man pressed a gun first against lliis stomach and then to his chest, and quilled the trigger. Ho added that af- ; -ter reeling from the blow of the bul--1 ct. he staggered to tlvq ..house and stwakened his brother, Joseph Hoe. Ari.e.r (attending to liim, thy brother went 'to the house of a neighbour, Air McLeod, and telephoned to Dr Begg. who went out from Pukekohe. On arrival the doctor found the injured youth was suffering from shock, hr tliat, strangely enough, ho had not lost much blood. By this time the Pukekolie police had arrived on the scene and immediately carried out an extensive search of a narrow strip of hush about 400 yds. to the west of the 'house. Last, night Detective Sergeant O’Brien', Detective Barling, and Constable-, Afuir arrived at the house from Auckland to institute further inquiries, and afterwards returned to Puke- ! koha. This morning the two detectives • weriL out again to Puni, and found that ! the. patient, although he had slept very j JitV.le, was conscious and able to be in- | ter viewed Aleantime the boy’s parents t had arrived from Helensville. In the statement made this 1110111- | ing by Hoe to Detective Sergeant j O’Brien it is umlerslod he said he i borrowed a Winchester rifle a month 1 ago from a neighbour. Air Thomas Burns, to shoot it horse, and that he . then asked permission to retain it for 1 the purpose of going shooting 011 Sun- • dny last. He states he put the gun in the cowshed, standing it against ! -the wall, and left it there, x\s his Jirother liad taxed liim with not keeping the rifle clean, he decided to give it a cleaning before going to bed. Early yesterday morning, after finishing liis homework, he went out and was ill the act of picking up the rifle when his finger came in contact with the trigger, and exploded a shell in the gun the bullet lodging hear liis heart. This •frightened him, as the bullet was so ■near liis heart that 110 feared liis people might put- it down to attempted sui-,-eide, so lie invented a story about being attacked by a man with a gun. The. hoy added that the whole occurrence was a pure accident. His condition had improved to-day, though he was still, too weak. to-. be moved t» the hospital. Young Hoc lias been staying with liis brother since last Easter, and has attended Pukekohe Technical High School, where the masters have apparently noticed notliyiiig abnormal alwuit him.