3-Year-Old Shot, Dies in Yellowstone

Family says child shot herself with handgun
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 9, 2013 12:44 AM CDT
Girl, 3, Shot Dead in Yellowstone
The girl was shot dead at a popular campsite in the park, officials say.   (Shutterstock)

Tragedy in Yellowstone National Park: A 3-year-old girl has died in the park's first fatal shooting in more than 30 years, officials say. The girl's mother has told investigators that the child shot herself with a handgun at a campground in the Wyoming section of the park Saturday, Reuters reports. Park rangers were unable to resuscitate the girl, whose identity is being withheld at the Idaho family's request.

The campground has been cordoned off while rangers investigate. Park officials say the last shooting death recorded in the park was in 1978. "Given the 3 million visitors we see here every year, there thankfully are very few fatalities reported in the park," a park spokesman tells the AP, adding that the leading cause of death in Yellowstone is heart attacks. A law passed in 2010 allows visitors to carry guns into national parks, but hunting or even firing a gun is still illegal in Yellowstone. (More Yellowstone National Park stories.)

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