The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-02-04
MOTHERS DEATH KEPT FROM BOY
Son of Major Thompson Fired Accidental Shot
 Father is in France.

New York, Feb. 4.-At the rooms of the Children's Society, where chill dren In dire trouble are no uncom- T.Hn sight, there was genuine sym Iuthy and perplexity over the pre- dicament of twelve-year-old William Thompson, who shot and killed his mother at their home, No. 610 West 11th Street. early yesterQuy morning. The handsome, bright faced boy had not been told that h,s mother was dead. No one, apparently, had the heart to tell him
 He believed his mother had been slightly wounded and was in a hos pital and his attempts to learn her condition from hour to hour were pathetic. It ha | not occurred to him, to judge by his manner, that he was himcalf in any danger of the laws retribution. All his thought was of mamma" and her condition.
 When Major Leslie E. Thompson, his father, now with the 76th Di- vision of the army in France, went into camp at Ayer Mass. he had told l the boy that he and his mother must be chums while he was away fight 1 ing, and they went to live at liar ward, in Worcester County, the next station to Camp Devens, to be near | him. Mother and son remained 1 chums while living in the country, | she helping him with his school les sons and taking a friendly interest n | his love for dogs and all animals and in his interest in mechanics, for l !, IcJ, l, l almost to genius. After his father went to France, mother and son 1 came to New York to live with Major | Tmompson's mother at No. 61O West 1 18th Street.
 William looked tired but anything i but guilty when he came down in ] the elevator from the rooms at the society's building yesterday morn ing at the call of Vincent Pizzaro
 agent of the society.
 The boy doesn't know his mother 1 fig dead,' said Mir. Pizzaro afterward
 He is anxious to hear how she is
 He is a bright, interesting child, and
 told me he was student at the Co., lumbia Grammar School. The auto
 matic pistol with which he shot his
 mother was one that his father had
 about the house before he went to
 war, It was kept in a drawer and his | mother allowed him to play with 1t,
 telling him to be careful. There were
 some cartridges in the drawer and he | had loaded it, or some one else had.
 Tn handling 1t while he cleaned 1t last night, while his mother and her
 sister were at the theatre, he was
 careful to set the safety catch. | When his mother came back
 shortly after midnight the pistol was
 lying on the table. He was seated
 reading on one side while his mother
 sat down on the other. He reached for the gun to put 1t away, and as he touched 1t the cartridge exploded.
 He was not even looking at his mother, but the bullet struck her and she rose and walked into the hall and fell. He ran out, saw she had been | wounded and ran to the telephone | switchboard on the same floor, and
 asked the attendant to call a doctor
 Then he tainted, and when he came
 to the doctor had arrived and was
 taking his mother to a hospital. That 1 is all he knows"
 At the house yesterday 1t was said 1 that Major Thompson had been con- l nected with a granite construction
 company before entering the army, and that the family had formerly
 lived in Keane, N. H.
 Williams mother and her sister, | Mrs. Marie Sessions of Worcester. i Mass, and Mrs. Sessions two chiI- | dren went to the theatre. Detective l Tferney of the West 125th Street Po- lice Station spent the night looking
 up the boys record. At the station
 house yesterday it was said it was 1 plainly an accidental shooting and that the boy, held under homicide
 charge, probably would be discharged
 after a hearing in the Washington ! Heights Police Court this morning The funeral of Mrs Thompson will
 take place at Wooster, Mass, to-mor- | TOW at P. M. Services will be held | at the home of Waldo Sessions,
 brother-in-law of Mrs. Thompson, at
 No. Oak Street, Wooster.
 131st ANNUAL CONTENTION