A teenager was accidentally shot dead by a friend with an air rifle at a drunken house party in Basingstoke, Hampshire, an inquest has heard. Connor Bell, 17, suffered an "unsurvivable" brain injury after the pellet entered his head through his right eye socket, causing a cardiac arrest. He was taken to Southampton General Hospital, where he died on November 10 last year.
Jack Beechy, now 18, fired the fatal shot by mistaking the trigger of the weapon for the safety catch. The Winchester inquest was told that Joshua Brown, now 18, had agreed with his parents that he would have a couple of friends round, and that the air rifle, which they had owned for three weeks, would be left locked away in a cupboard.
Party plans changed
On the day, more friends than Mr Brown had told his parents about attended the home, and they drank vodka, cider and beers instead of the box of 12 Peroni beers that his father had bought. Mr Brown said he took out the .177 calibre air rifle, and it was used to fire from the conservatory at targets in the garden such as bottles.
Later in the evening, he was in the lounge when Mr Beechy ran in from the kitchen and said: "I shot Connor." Mr Beechy told the inquest he had drunk beer, cider and vodka during the evening and was a "little bit drunk". He said Mr Brown had asked him to put the rifle back in its case, so he decided to fire off the remaining pellets in the magazine from the conservatory because he "thought it would be safer" and added: "I thought I had completely unloaded it."
Fatal mistake
Mr Beechy said it was as he walked into the kitchen that he accidentally fired the rifle by mistaking the trigger for the safety catch while Connor was standing nearby. He said: "I tried to put the safety on but it was the wrong trigger. The safety is directly in front of the trigger."
After emergency services arrived, Mr Beechy told police: "I shot my friend with an air rifle, it was an accident." A post-mortem carried out by pathologist Dr Megan Jenkins found the cause of death to be a hypoxic brain injury caused by cardiac arrest resulting from a gunshot wound to the head.
Coroner's conclusion
Coroner Jason Pegg recorded a conclusion of accidental death, with a lack of weapons-handling skills contributing to the death. He said Mr Brown's father, Martin Brown, had thought his son was only planning a small gathering and had told him not to take the air rifle out of the cupboard.
Mr Pegg said: "The reality was a little bit different, Joshua Brown, like many teenagers, decided to make it into more of a house party, his friends ended up bringing copious amounts of alcohol and within a short time of that party starting, Joshua and his friends were intoxicated with alcohol."
The coroner continued: "It's clear to me that he (Joshua) was shown how to use the rifle by his father. I am satisfied that Joshua told his friends how to use the weapon, how to load it, how to reload it and how to fire it and I am satisfied he told them how to use the safety catch."
Mr Pegg said there had been a "real risk and a degree of inevitably" of an accident happening among a group of young people drinking. He added Connor's death was "devastating" and said: "This is a deeply tragic case."
Connor's father, Robert Bell, said his son was "dearly loved" and said: "He was cheeky and had a caring and soft side, never took himself too seriously and had a wicked sense of humour." He said his son enjoyed football, was a keen gym-goer and was training to become a personal trainer.
