Toddler Accidentally Shoots Mother In Walmart

On Tuesday morning, a mother was shopping in a Hayden, Idaho Walmart when her toddler pulled a gun from her mother's purse and fatally shot her. The mother was pronounced dead at the scene, and the Walmart was evacuated for the duration of the investigation. Police deputies immediately named the shooting "accidental," based on what they said was video surveillance and eyewitness accounts.

The woman, whom authorities said was not a Hayden, Idaho resident and lived out of town, had a concealed weapon permit. Her son — a two-year-old who was shopping with her at the time of the shooting — had reached into his mother's purse and her handgun had accidentally fired, Kootenai County sheriff’s spokesman Stu Miller told reporters later Tuesday. The group was in the electronics section of the store at the time, and nobody else was injured in the shooting.

Walmart has a long-standing policy allowing customers with gun permits to bring firearms into its stores, and encourages customers who feel threatened by others' guns to speak to management at the store. The chain is also one of the country's biggest sellers of firearms.

According to an AP report, Hayden is a small, conservative town located about forty miles of Spokane, Washington.