Little Boy Shot Dead in Playroom

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 453, 7 September 1928, Page 7

Little Boy Shot Dead in Playroom

TRAGEDY AT PONSONBY

CHILDREN'S FATAL GAME Tragedy followed the happy meeting of several young children in a Ponsonby home yesterday afternoon. Bruce James Garner. aged seven years, whose parents live at 77 Clarence Street, was accidentally shot by his little cousin and died within an hour. The dying child was found by his mother, who heard the sound of a muffled explosion followed by the screams of her son’s companions.

When Mrs. Garner entered the children’s playroom she found the little boy lying on the floor with a wound in his body just above the hips. A discharged shotgun lay where it had fallen from the hands of one of the terrified children.

The afternon was wet, and Bruce Garner, with his cousin and several other children, were playing in the house. After seeing that they were happily amused, Mrs. Garner went to the kitchen.

A few rninutes later she was startled by the sound of a muffled report, but imagined it to be the slamming of a door. This was followed by screams from the children, and on rushing to the room, the agonised mother saw the result of the tragedy. Bruce Garner had fallen from the bed where he had been sitting, and the other children were crying hysterically. PAST DOCTOR’S AID Hr. Coldicutt was called almost immediately, but could do nothing for the boy. Mr. J. Garner, a builder, was called by telephone and hurried home in time to spend the last few minutes with his son. The parents were unable to account for the ggn being loaded. It is thought that one of the children may have taken a cartridge from the shelf on which they were kept. The nature of the wound showed that the muzzle of the gun must have been close to the body of the boy when the trigger was pulled, and this would account for the muffling of the report. Bruce Garner was the eldest child of Mr. and Mrs. J. Garner. There are two other children. ACCIDENT DESCRIBED “Bruce and the others and I went to a spare bedroom to play,” said a boy aged 10 years, in giving evidence before the Coroner, Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., at the inquest held at Mr. Garner’s home this morning. He said that Bruce found a pearifle and made it “go click.” He had a look round and found a gun under a curtain. He 1 tried to pull the hammer back, but found it hard to lift. Then he let it go and the gun went off. He did not load it, and that was the first time he had had it in his hand. James Garner, father of the deceased, said he used the gun a fortnight ago, and unloa'ded it before arriving home. It was a single-barrel shotgun. There were three or four cartridges on the mantelpiece in the bedroom.

Hr. Coldicutt said that the child was practically moribund when he arrived. Heath occurred shortly after and was due to shock and loss of blood from a large gunshot wound above the right thigh.

The coroner returned a verdict of accidental death following the shoot-