A woman in South Carolina has died after she was accidentally shot with an unsecured firearm by her 3-year-old daughter on Wednesday, officials said.
Officials said that the grandmother’s account of what had happened “corroborated with both the evidence at the scene and the injury to the victim.”
“Although our investigation remains active, all indications are this incident was a result of the young child gaining access to an unsecured firearm, which resulted in the mother being accidentally shot and later passing away at the hospital,” the sheriff’s office said.
The Spartanburg County Coroner’s Office said that Bush, 35, was pronounced dead at Spartanburg Regional Medical Center at 9:46 a.m.
“Please keep the family of Ms. Bush in your thoughts and prayers during this time of loss and grief,” the coroner’s office said, adding that a forensic autopsy would be conducted on Thursday.
Republican lawmakers and other experts have argued that tighter gun lock laws may make it harder for people to defend themselves and their families if a criminal were to attack, owing to a lack of ready access to a gun.