The Daily Alaska empire., 1950-05-16
5-yEAR-0tD TELLS
 HOW HE FIRED SHOT
 THAT KILLED SISTER


 Although he .sobbingly refused tC leave his mothers side while be. ing questioned, five-year-old Gent LaMoore told a coronerS jury to- day how he fired rifle ,whicf took the life of his three-year-olc sister, Yvonne June LaMoore, while she played on a stairway landing in the grandparents home.
 Dressed in his blue Sunday suit and holding tight with one hand to his chair, the boy simply s>.d T don't know to questions by Assistant District Attorney Stanley Baskin until the same questions were reworded
 He then gave complete answers and told how the accident hap pened.
 His sister died yesterday after noon after being pierced by 32-20 bullet fired by the boy from gun placed in corner near the stair way by their grandfather, William Kunz. Kunz then went into the yard, leaving the children alone in the house, except for Mrs. Kurz, who is bedridden.
 The mother, Mrs. Betty LaMoore, was downtown at the time of Gle shooting, but rushed immediately to Government Hospital when told by a neighbor. The girl was taken to the hospital by Police Chief Bernard E. Hulk. with Mrs. Jake Cropley, a neighbor, holding the dying girl.
 The mother is the widow of Eugene LaMoore, who died April IA on the gallows here in Federal jail for his part in the murder of Jim Ellen in 1946.
 The jury's verdict was that death was caused from shock, as a result of a gunshot wound acci- dentally inflicted by Gene La- Moore, minor child, and brother of the deceased"
 Following is summary of the questioning of the boy used by Baskin to bring out the tragic de- tails of the case:
 c. Where was the gun?
 A. By the stairs.
 o. What did you do with it? A. I shot it.
 Q. How did you shoot it?
 A. pulled the trigger.
 G. Where were you?
 A. By the stairs.
 Q. Were you the only one playing with the gun?
 A. Uh-huh.
 q. Where was your sister?
 A. By the window when the bull let shot her.
 c. How many times did it shoot A. It only shot one time.
 c. Would you tell us how i happened?
 A. I told her to come downstairl II didn't know the gun was loaded and it shot.
 Q. Where did you go when i shot?
 A. I ran outside and up to tht Evergreen Bowl.
 Dr. Frank Maresh, physician who attended the child, said the bullet entered her abdomen and wa: found high in her chest. He at tributed cause of death as bleeding the injury and with shock second ary.
 Chief Hulk said he found bullet hole through a sideboard on the stairway landing, near where Yvon- ne was standing, apparently indicat- ing the bullet passed through il before striking the child.
 Mrs. Cropley said that Kunz came to her door and told of the shooting, and after calling police she went to the house with him She found the little girl on the floor near Mrs. Kunz' bed where she had fled after being struck She said that Mrs. Kunz told hel the girl did not cry out when hit but ran for her "as she usually does when she's hurt" and coll apsed by the bed.
 Kunz told the jury how he hao placed the gun in a corner aSel returning from a camping trip, ane believed there was no shell in tht chamber, although he knew tht magazine was loaded.
 Mrs. LaMoore took the stand briefly to relate what she had beer told of the tragedy. l.
 Members of the jury were:
 Robert H. Burns, Joe Hunter William H. Riggs, James w. Me Naughton, Donald Mines and E E. Hagerup.