A dog stepped on a rifle in the backseat of a car and fatally shot a passenger during a hunting trip in Kansas, per NBC News.
Joseph Austin Smith, 30, was sitting in the passenger seat of a pickup truck when he was shot in the back. The car’s driver, who was sitting next to Smith when the gun went off, did not get hurt.
“The back seat contained hunting gear and a rifle,” said a statement from the Sumner County Sheriff’s Office, per The Washington Post. “A canine belonging to the owner of the pickup stepped on the rifle causing the weapon to discharge. The fired round struck the passenger who died of his injuries on scene.”
Responders were called to the scene on Monday morning. Emergency Medical Services attempted CPR on Smith before he was pronounced dead. The sheriff’s office considers the shooting an accident and has closed the case, reports the Post.
Unintentional gun-related deaths
“Keep the safety on, unload your guns completely when it’s in a vehicle and put it away, in the trunk,” Wellington Fire and EMS Chief Tim Hay said, per USA Today.
There were 535 unintentional gun-related deaths in the U.S. during 2020, according to Pew Research.
According to The Washington Post, this is not the first accident involving a dog and a loaded weapon.
In November 2022, a 32-year-old Turkish man was shot and killed by his dog during a hunting trip. Under similar circumstances, the man’s dog stepped on the trigger and shot the man in his abdomen.