Fatal Shooting at a Prosser Saloon
A laborer kills a bartender in a sudden act of violence.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Charles Rasmussen, a bartender at Hoffman & Harding’s saloon in Prosser, was shot and killed Tuesday night by Peter Brickey, a laborer. Brickey entered the saloon with two companions, invited them to drink, and then suddenly stepped behind the bar and fired three revolver shots at Rasmussen. One bullet struck the victim in the left temple and another entered the heart; death was instantaneous. Brickey, who had been drinking, was arrested at the scene. He reportedly had no previous quarrel with the bartender.
“Brickey had been drinking but had no previous quarrel with the bartender.”
Public shootings in social spaces remain a jarring aspect of community life, highlighting the dangers inherent in environments where alcohol, firearms, and volatility intersect. While Prosser has evolved from its rough-and-tumble frontier roots, the human cost of sudden, senseless violence remains a constant, tragic feature of local history.
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