Tragedy on the highway: Witnesses say child got hold of gun, shot woman driving on Hwy 175

police tape

MILWAUKEE, WI (CNN) — The Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office says witness accounts indicate a child in the back seat of a vehicle in the southbound lanes of Highway 175 on Tuesday morning, April 26th, got hold of a gun and discharged the firearm. That sent a single bullet into the driver’s back.

Sheriff’s deputies responded to the scene around 10:30 a.m. They found a 26-year-old woman had suffered a gunshot wound. She was did not have a pulse and was not breathing.

Deputies began CPR until the Milwaukee Fire Department arrived on the scene. However, the woman was pronounced dead at the scene.

“People were panicking and you could tell people were generally trying to help,” said Kourtney Blevins. “They pulled a, looks like a young lady out, and they started to resuscitate her on the ground. I heard something about a shooting, and a gun went off. I know there’s some little boys down there which they put in a police car. It was two little boys it looked like, so some kids were involved unfortunately. I just kind of stayed back and prayed about it.”

You may recall — an incident similar to this occurred in March in Florida. Jamie Gilt, a Florida pro-gun activist was accidentally shot and wounded by her four-year-old son, who shot her from the back seat of a car while Gilt was sitting in the driver’s seat.

Authorities said the firearm was legally owned by Gilt, who maintained a Facebook page entitled “Jamie Gilt for Gun Sense,” where she regularly posted pro-gun positions.

It happened on March 9th in Putnam County, Florida.

The Putnam County Sheriff’s Office later filed an affidavit with local prosecutors asking that Gilt be charged with the second-degree misdemeanor, which carries a penalty of up to 180 days in jail.

Florida law makes it a misdemeanor for a person to store or leave a loaded firearm in such a way that a child could gain access to it.

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