Patrice Price, 26, was shot and killed by a two year old boy on Tuesday while driving along Highway 175 in Milwaukee. Price had her two children riding with her.The boys are one and two years of age and it appears that the two year old somehow located a gun and shot his mother in the back while she was driving. The youngest was sitting up front and the two year old was in the back seat. neither child was in a child safety seat according to police at the scene.
The list keeps growing with regard to toddlers who have found guns and injured or killed people by accidentally shooting them. Sheriff’s deputies and paramedics pronounced Price dead at the scene before taking her and the children away. Price had been driving her boyfriend’s truck. Her boyfriend is employed as a security guard.
According to a police statement, the two year old boy grabbed hold of a gun that was hidden under the drivers side seat and managed to slide out onto the floor of the back seats. The .40 caliber handgun belonged to Price’s boyfriend and police also found his gun belt on the floor near the front passenger seat.
Children getting hold of guns and accidentally shooting people has become, sadly, more and more common. Just last month a young 31 year old Florida mother was shot while driving her car when her four year old grabbed a gun that, too, had slipped into the back seat by sliding out from under the front seat. The Florida woman was seriously injured but not killed the the .45 automatic.
According to statistics compiled by the gun control organization known as Everytown for Gun Safety, 265 children accidentally shot someone in the United States during 2015. So far this year, the organization claims that there have been 69 incidents with children accidentally firing guns at people.
PHOTO SOURCE: The Ottawa Citizen