Toddler shoots, kills mom at Walmart
Jeff Selle Jselle@Cdapress.Com | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 10 years AGO
<p>People at the scene wait inside the Walmart in Hayden, Idaho after a 2-year-old boy accidentally shot and killed his mother on Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2014. Walmart will remain closed until 6 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2014.</p>
<p>An Idaho State Patrol officer arrives at the scene of Walmart in Hayden, Idaho after a 2-year-old boy accidentally shot and killed his mother on Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2014. The boy was seated in a shopping cart when he reached inside his mother’s purse and discharged a concealed weapon.</p>
HAYDEN — A Blackfoot, Idaho woman died Tuesday at the Hayden Wal-Mart store after her 2-year-old son accidentally shot her with a gun she was carrying in her purse.
Kootenai County Sheriff’s Lt. Stu Miller said Veronica J. Rutledge, 29, was shopping, and had several family members with her when the shooting took place.
Miller said the preliminary investigation shows Rutledge had her son seated in the shopping cart and he grabbed the concealed weapon from her purse and discharged it, striking Rutledge.
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 was not in the store when the shooting happened about 10:20 a.m. Miller said the man arrived shortly after the shooting. All the children were taken to a relative’s house.
Brooke Buchanan, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart, said in a statement the shooting was a “very sad and tragic accident.”
“We are working closely with the local sheriff’s department while they investigate what happened,” Buchanan said.
Miller said Rutledge was visiting relatives in the area when the shooting occurred. The woman’s Facebook profile states she lives in the southeastern Idaho town of Blackfoot, and is from Harrison.
Store employees evacuated the building immediately after the shooting, but several witnesses were detained inside the store until police could take their statements.
The Hayden store remained closed Tuesday and was scheduled to reopen today at 6 a.m.
Miller said police were also in the process of reviewing the store’s video surveillance footage to see what actually transpired.
Hayden resident Dwight Van Horn, who sits on the board of the National Rifle Association, said the NRA would not be issuing a statement on the shooting at this time.
“We prefer to give people some time and let all the facts come in before we weigh in on anything like this,” Van Horn said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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