Constable Howard was fatally shot whilst trying to apprehend four bushrangers who had taken possession of a hut in the Burgess area. The four (John Reilly Michael Rogers Patrick Lynch and Peter Reynolds) had escaped from a penal station at Fingal and were terrorising the local population. Constable Howard and his men arrived at the hut late at night and were fired upon as soon as the bushrangers realised they were there.