Wednesday, December 31, 2014

'Tragic accident': 2-year-old fatally shoots mom in Idaho Wal-Mart

'Tragic accident': 2-year-old fatally shoots mom in Idaho Wal-Mart

Salt Lake Tribune - ‎28 minutes ago‎
This photo shows Wal-Mart with a shopping cart in the foreground in Hayden, Idaho, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2014. A 2-year-old boy accidentally shot and killed his mother after he reached into her purse at the northern Idaho Wal-Mart and her concealed gun fired, ...
Woman Shot, Killed By Son, 2, Was A “Loving Mother”
2-year-old fatally shoots mom in Idaho Wal-Mart
Mom Shot, Killed By 2-Year-Old Son at Walmart
Woman described as loving mother fatally shot by 2-year-old son in northern ...
The Salt Lake Tribune

‘Tragic accident’: 2-year-old fatally shoots mom in Idaho Wal-Mart

First Published 31 minutes ago      Updated 31 minutes ago
Hayden, Idaho • A shopping trip to a northern Idaho Wal-Mart turned tragic when a 2-year-old boy reached into his mother’s purse, grabbed her concealed gun and accidentally killed the woman, authorities said.
Veronica J. Rutledge, 29, who was described as a loving mother, was shopping Tuesday with her son and three other children when the young boy grabbed the small-caliber handgun, which discharged one time, Kootenai County sheriff’s spokesman Stu Miller said. Miller said the boy had been left in a shopping cart.
Rutledge was from Blackfoot in southeastern Idaho, and her family had come to the area to visit relatives.
She was an employee of the Idaho National Laboratory, The Spokesman-Review of Spokane, Washington, reported. The Idaho Falls laboratory supports the U.S. Department of Energy in nuclear and energy research and national defense.
Responding deputies found Rutledge dead in the Wal-Mart in Hayden, a politically conservative town of about 9,000 people about 40 miles northeast of Spokane, Washington.
"It appears to be a pretty tragic accident," Miller said.
The victim’s father-in-law, Terry Rutledge, told The Associated Press that Veronica Rutledge "was a beautiful, young, loving mother."
"She was not the least bit irresponsible," Terry Rutledge said. "She was taken much too soon."
The woman’s husband arrived to the store in Idaho’s northern panhandle shortly after the shooting around 10:20 a.m. Tuesday, Miller said. All the children were taken to a relative’s house.
Brooke Buchanan, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart, said in a statement that the shooting was a "very sad and tragic accident." The Hayden store closed for the rest of the day.
"We are working closely with the local sheriff’s department while they investigate what happened," Buchanan said.
Idaho National Laboratory senior chemical engineer Vince Maio worked with Rutledge on a research paper about using glass ceramic to store nuclear waste, The Spokesman-Review reported.
Maio said he was immediately impressed with her.
"She had a lot of maturity for her age," he told the newspaper. "Her work was impeccable. She found new ways to do things that we did before and she found ways to do them better."
There do not appear to be reliable national statistics about the number of accidental fatalities involving children handling guns.
In neighboring Washington state, a 3-year-old boy was seriously injured in November when he accidentally shot himself in the face in a home in Lake Stevens, about 30 miles north of Seattle.
In April, a 2-year-old boy apparently shot and killed his 11-year-old sister while they and their siblings played with a gun inside a Philadelphia home. Authorities said the gun was believed to have been brought into the home by the mother’s boyfriend.
Idaho lawmakers passed legislation earlier this year allowing concealed weapons on the state’s public college and university campuses. 
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'Tragic accident': 2-year-old fatally shoots mom in Idaho Wal-Mart


 

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