Despite the attentions of Dr. Snooker

Liverpool Evening Express, Thursday 01 March 1906

A PRESTON TRAGEDY.

Shot Dead by Six-year-old Son.

(SPECIAL TELEGRAM.)

Details of an extraordinary shooting fatality were to-day reported, to the Preston coroner.

Yesterday Richard Buck, 37, butcher, Hesketh-with-Becconsall, went shooting on Hesketh Marsh, accompanied by his two little boys. Returning home in the afternoon, he met a farmer friend named Samuel Iddon, and, entering into conversation with the latter, he placed the gunstock on the ground and leaned upon it, hie hand resting on the barrel.

Suddenly the gun went off and blew Buck’s hand off and carried away the left side of his face, cutting the main artery. Buck, who bled profusely, was carried home in a hopeless condition, and died during the evening, despite the attentions of Dr. Snooker. At the time the weapon was discharged, deceased’s son, William, aged 6, ran between his father’s legs, and witnesses stated he had been playing with the trigger, and accidentally discharged the weapon.