SHOOTING TRAGEDY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 May 1939, Page 3

SHOOTING TRAGEDY

DEATH OF MR J. W. BRADY. ACCIDENTAL DISCHARGE OF GUN. (By telegraph— Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. A verdict of death from a gunshot wound in the head, inflicted as the result of the accidental discharge of a .22 rifle by a passenger in a passing motortruck was returned by the coroner, Mr E. Gilbertson, J.P., at the conclusion of the inquest in Wellington yesterday on John William Brady, aged 25. Brady, a labourer employed by the Hutt County Council, received a bullet wound in the head while driving his motor-car on the Paekakariki Hill on April 25 and died on the way to hospital. “I have been very much impressed by the evidence of the witnesses, par-* ticularly Martin, testifying to their promptitude in coming forward and their honesty in describing the part Martin inadvertently played in the tragedy, when his silence would have intensified the mystery,” said the coroner. “I commend him for his honourable conduct.” Kenneth Nelmes Davies, single, aged 23, a labourer working on road construction work for the Hutt County Council in Raumati South and living at the camp there, said that Brady worked on the same job and also lived at the camp. He had an old model roadster car. On Anzac night Brady drove witness and another workmate, Eddie Ryan, from Lower Hutt on their journey back to the camp. About a third of the way up the Wellington side of the Paekakariki Hill witness heard a loud report which he thought at the time was a backfire from the motorcar. At the same instant Brady slumped sideways against him. Thinking he had fainted, witness grabbed the steerling -wheel, but the car ran into the bank on the left side of the road. The time would be about 9.45 p.m. Brady was lying in the car unconscious and Ryan had a nasty cut over his eye and appeared dazed. The drivers of two other cars coming down the hill helped to carry Brady to the opposite side of the road. Witness told them he thought Brady haa fainted, but then he noticed a wound at the back of Brady’s head. Brady died on the way to hospital.

Robert Alexander Martin, single, aged 20, said that during the early afternoon of Anzac Day, he was one of a party of six who left Wellington for Paekakariki. He drove the party in his truck. All except himself played golf at Paekakariki, and he took a rifle lent him by Tom de Lisle, a member of the party ,to do some rabbit shooting. The rifle was a .22 single shot Melior Belgian. Witness fired off all the ammunition as he thought, but did hot get any rabbits. About 9 p.m. they left on the homeward journey, de Lisle drivings Witness had the rifle with him in the back of the truck. It was lying on the floor. Shortly after passing the summit of the Paekakariki Hill, they stopped to help a motorist change one of the tires on the front of his car.

Driving on down the Wellington side of the hill, witness happened to pick up the rifle, intending to put it away in its canvas case. As he was handling the gun. it suddenly discharged. He could

not remember pulling the trigger, but he might have touched it. The gun would be pointing roughly toward the back of the truck when it discharged. 1 It was purely accidental as he had nc idea that the gun was loaded. Casual mention was made of the incident, witness continued, but no more was thought of it till he read in a newspaper the following night an account of how Mr Brady had been fatally shot. Witness consulted his solicitor and the party then promptly gave the police all the information possible. On April 2 r i he accompanied Detective-Sergeants McLennan and Murray to the top oi the Paekakariki Hill, where he showed the probable spot where the rifle was diischarged. To Mr V/. Brady, Masterton, father of the dead man, witness said that aftei the shot was fired he was rather surprised. He did not ask the driver to , stop and investigate because he saw nc , lights about. . Mr Brady: You had handled this gun during the day. You must have realisI ed that they don’t just go off. , Witness: I might have pressed the [ trigger. , You must have pressed the trigger.— : I don’t remember pressing it. You didn’t perhaps fire at the tail- . light of the car to give somebody a scare? —No. I’d like to explain that I’m not accusing you of deliberately firing the gun, but are you quite sure that you ' didn’t fire at the tail-light?—Quite c sure. Detective-Sergeant Murray: I’d like r to take this opportunity of assuring Mr t Brady that the police have gone fully , into the discharging of this firearm. “ Senior-Sergeant G. G| Kelly, arms advisory officer, said that from his ex- ~ amination of the rifle the trigger would have to be operated to cause a shot to [ be fired, but the lightness of the trig- / ger pull would constitute a danger.