THE INGLEWOOD FATALITY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 164, 17 December 1914, Page 2

THE INGLEWOOD FATALITY.

*C* : VERDICT OF ACCIDENTAL DEATH. CORONER'S COMMENTS OX CARELESSNESS. The inquest, into the circumstances surrounding the death of Nobel Edgar , Taylor, the victim of the Ingluwood , shooting fatality, was resumed at tlio. . Court House, New Plymouth, yesterday, before Mr. >A. Crooke, S.M. (Coroner). William Thomas Hickton, blacksmith's assistant, deposed that lie lived at Inglewood with Air. Taylor, lie owned a pea-rille, and was going shooting with Ernest Taylor last Wednesday night, I the Mb. lie did not have the ride that day. The pea-rille stood in Mr. Taylor's kitchen, behind a milk-can. lie was at Air. Taylor's when the fatality took place on Monday. He saw Ernest 'fay. lor take the rille'from behind the milkcan, and he was going outside with the rille under his arm when it went oil'. Then lie saw the deceased lad, who had been playing outside, lying down with a wound in his right temple, from which blood was llowing. He neither spoke nor moved. He himself had not used the rifle, for about a fortnight, but Ernest Taylor had used it a week ago. To the. Coroner: Hi! had never seen the deceased using the ride. The cartridges were kept in the'room used by witness and Ernest Taylor. He had never seen the deceased playing with the cartridges. He did not know who had loaded the rifle. When lie last used the riile he had cleaned it, and left it unloaded. To Sergeant Bowdcn: The practice after using the rifle was to clean it and overhaul it. To the Coroner: TTpon consideration, I think that Friday, December 4, was the last time I used the rifle. Ernest Wilfred Taylor, son of Alfred Taylor, and a brother of the deceased, deposed that he had just come home from work last; -Monday afternoon, and had invited Willie Hickton to go shooting hares with him. 'The rifle stood in the corner of the bedroom, which was alongside the. kitchen. He picked it up and started to go outside, having a look to see whether the hammer was up. When he got by the door he. pulled the trigger, and the rille went oil, the bullet striking his brother in the temple. The last time he had handled the riile before i the accident was when ho went shooting with Hickton; He could not remember | the exact day, though he, was sure it was on a Wednesday evening. When he picked up the. rifle, he did not know it was loaded, nor did he know who had loaded it. After the last shooting expedition the rille had been cleaned, and . put together again. When he. picked up the rille he did not know the hammer was up. He was carrying the rifle at the trail, lint a little higher than usual. Ho hail only walked six or seven feet when the rifle' went off. TTe had never known the. rille to be left loaded after being used. Hickton and he were the only ones he knew of who ever used the rifle. When he saw his little brother had been shot he was dazed with horror, as they had always been good (-hums, the little boy being the pet of the family. To the Coroner: He had never known deceased to touch the cartridges, as he had always been warned not to touch them. He did not tliink the deceased knew how to load the rifle. He had had no intention of pulling the trigger. Alfred Taylor, laborer, of Windsor i road, Inglewood, and father of tue I deceased, deposed that he went home last Monday at about 5 30. He knew nothing whatever about the events i leading up to the fatality. The first thing he knew on reaching homo was , hearing his wife screaming, and then 1 he saw his son lying on the -ground. He picked him up and carried him inside , while he sent Herman for the doctor, . who ordered the child's removal to the hospital. He. did not know who had loaded the rille, and was unaware whether the ride was cleaned after being - used or not. The rille was kept in Hick--5 ton's -bedroom, behind the milk-can, 1 which was used for flour. He had never 1 heard of the deceased using the rille. lie > was sure the deceased knew nothing >' about a pea-rille, nor had he handled one f in his life. No one but the two previous 1 witnesses had ever used the rille so far f as he. knew. ' '' r,i ~ : ' DrE. A.Walker, superintendent of the New Plymouth Hospital, deposed that he remembered the night of Monday last, when the deceased was brought in from . Inglewood by Dr. Whettcr. The lad was " profoundly unconscious, and was suffering from a severe wound In the forehead, the details of which he described. The 1 wound contained blood, cerebo-spinal ' fluid, and brain substance. The boy's condition was hopeless, and ho died at ' 10.25, about three hours after admis- ' sion. The cause of death was intra- " cranial homer'huge and damage to vital portions of the brain. The injuries wore obviously caused by a bullet tired at ' close rang:-. The Coroner said there was no doubt that death was accidental. He was not satisfied, however, with the evidence on the. point as to, how the gun was loaded. Deceased could not load the rifle himself, and the evidence showed it must have been one of the two boys, as no one else ever used the rille. It was evidently due to carelessness. He would return a verdict that the deceased had been acci--3 dentally shot by his brother, Ernest Wilj fred Taylor.