Father JOSEPH BRAGARD somehow managed to shoot and kill his 9-month-old daughter, when the bullet from his gun passed through his wife's wrist. Authorities of the time didn't think the shooting was entirely an accident. Dad was unemployed and the family was living at the wife's sister's house at the time of the shooting.
From the archives of the New York Times, December 18, 1922.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9C00E5D71F3EEE3ABC4052DFB4678389639EDEBABY DEAD, FATHER HELD FOR MURDER
Bullet Went Through Mother's Wrist Into Body of Child on Her Knee.
Special to the New York Times.
HACKENSACK, Dec. 17.--Julia, the nine-months-old child of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Bragard of 162 Elm Avenue, Bogota, who was shot in the abdomen last evening, died in the Hackensack Hospital today. The father, who was arrested last night on a charge of atrocious assault and battery, is in the Hackensack jail tonight.
According to the detectives, Bragard said that the revolver pulled from his belt as he arose from a table where he had been playing solitaire and went off striking the floor. "Mrs. Bragard sat near by in the kitchen with the baby on her lap," said County Detective Nathan Allyn, "and the bullet passed through her left wrist and then into the baby's body. As Mrs. Bragard was sitting to the right of her husband at the time and as the revolver fell on the left side of Bragard's chair, we couldn't quite accept Bragard's explanation."
Detective Allyn displayed the .32 calibre revolver and remarked that he didn't think it could be discharged by falling on the floor.
Bragard is 27 and his wife 30. They have two other children. Bragard has been out out of work several weeks and his finances were low. He formerly worked on the Erie as a brakeman. The Bragards were living with Mr. and Mrs. Louis Erlich. The women are sisters.
When asked for a statement, Bragard said to Detective Allyn and Assistant Prosecutor C. J. McCarthy, "I will tell you my story at trial." When told of his baby's death tonight he became hysterical. Mrs. Bragard, who is in a state of collapse, has not been told of her baby's death. Erlich and his wife are held as material witnesses.
