Shot Fired in Self-Defense at Hartford
An intoxicated man is shot after attempting to force entry into a private home.
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.
Pat Courigan, of Hartford, Snohomish County, has been annoying Mrs. O'Donnell for some time with his attentions, and last Saturday afternoon, while drunk, he tried to enter her house. She told him to go away, but he put his shoulder against the door to force entrance. Then Mrs. O'Donnell fired through the door and put a rifle bullet in Pat's shoulder.
“Then Mrs. O'Donnell fired through the door and put a rifle bullet in Pat's shoulder.”
This incident of a woman defending her home against a persistent, aggressive harasser resonates with the persistent societal conversation surrounding domestic violence and the right to self-defense. The event highlights the isolated, frontier nature of justice in 1890s Snohomish County, where personal armed defense was often the immediate recourse.
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