John Thomas Beasley, 19 year old Bruceville community resident, was killed Sunday afternoon when struck by a bullet from the rifle he was using to punch a rabbit out of a hollow stump.

The incident occurred about 1 p.m. in the woods by the Halls-Chestnut Bluff Road near the Dyer-Gibson County line. The youth's companions, Roy Fisher and Dan Fisher, witnessed the tradgey.

Roy Sudbury of Sudbury Funeral Home in Halls quoted the boys as saying that young Beasley removed the stock and the forearm from the rifle and was using the barrel to prod the rabbit. As he bent over to look in the hole, the weapon went off.

Young Beasley leaves his wife, Mrs. Joann Fisher Beasley, a son, William T. Beasley and his parents, Mr. and Mrs. W. M. Beasley of the Bruceville community.