A teenager told an inquest he fatally shot his friend with an air rifle at a house party after mistaking the trigger for the safety catch.
Connor Bell, 17, from Tadley, had been drinking with friends at a house in Chineham, near Basingstoke, on 8 November 2025 when he was hit by a pellet fired by Jack Beechy, the Winchester inquest heard.
The pellet entered through his right eye socket, causing an “unsurvivable” brain injury and cardiac arrest. He died at Southampton General Hospital two days later.
Coroner Jason Pegg recorded a conclusion of accidental death, exacerbated by a lack of weapons-handling skills.
The inquest heard Joshua Brown, now 18, had agreed with his parents that only a couple of friends would come round and the air rifle would stay locked in a cupboard.
But he said more friends came than he had told his parents about, and the group drank vodka, cider and beer.
He took out the .177 calibre rifle and it was used to shoot at bottles in the garden from the conservatory.
Beechy, now 18, said he was “a little bit drunk” when Brown asked him to put the rifle away.
He fired off the remaining pellets from the conservatory because he “thought it would be safer”, believing the gun was then empty.
Beechy said that as he walked into the kitchen, with Bell standing nearby, he fired the rifle by mistake.