REMARKABLE ACCIDENT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 22, 22 December 1932, Page 3

REMARKABLE ACCIDENT.

SPENT BULLET KILLS YOUNG MAN When Edward Carson Cassey, 19, was shot dead in Brisbane Street, Perth, recently, tho police thought ho had been murdered. From deductions made as the result of a post-mortem examination by Hr. D. S. McKenzie, however, they are now definitely of the opinion that lie was tho victim of a rare kind of accident. When tlio accident occurred, Cassey was on his way to fulfil an engagement with an orchestra as drummer at a nearby dance hall. Tho doctor’s report revealed that a .303 Mark 6 bullet was responsible for the young man’s death. The bullet entered the body on a downward course about an inch below' the centre of the breastbone, and was deflected by a rib to a position under the shoulder blade, from where it was extracted. Tho police consider that tho bullet must have been fired into the air about half a mile away, and was practically spent when, in its flight to earth, Cassey unluckily walked in its way. Cassey was walking along Brisbane Street about 7.55 p.m. with Alfred Ernest Arnold, another player in the orchestra, and had nearly reached the dance hall when lie dropped his drum and equipment, exclaiming: "I’m shot.” He staggered a few paces and collapsed, blood flowing from him. He was inarticulate when the police arrived, and was dead when he reached Perth Hospital. A noise like the dull explosion of a cracker heard by his companions is believed by tho police to have been caused by the bullet hitting Cassey.