5-year-old Kentucky boy fatally shoots 2-year-old sister

[Penny Lane 8,159]

(CNN) -- A Kentucky mother stepped outside of her home just for a few minutes, but it was long enough for her 5-year-old son to accidentally shoot and kill his 2-year-old sister with the .22-caliber rifle he got for his birthday, state officials said.

The shooting that took the life of Caroline Sparks in southern Kentucky has been ruled an accident, Kentucky State Police Trooper Billy Gregory said.

"It's just one of those nightmares," he said, "a quick thing that happens when you turn your back."

Young children in the area are often introduced to guns at an early age, Gregory said.

"In this part of the country, it's not uncommon for a 5-year-old to have a gun or for a parent to pass one down to their kid," he said.

Her family kept the Crickett rifle in what they considered to be a safe spot, Cumberland County Coroner Gary White told the CNN affiliate.

The boy was playing with it Tuesday when it accidentally went off and killed his sister, White said.

"The little Crickett rifle is a single-shot rifle, and it has a child safety," White told CNN. "It's just a tragic situation."

The Crickett website features three .22-caliber rifle models for kids, with shoulder stock colors ranging from pink to red, white and blue swirls. "My first rifle" is the company's slogan.

Family members Wednesday described the shooting as an accident.

"He just picked (the gun) up before he realized it," grandmother Linda Riddle told WLEX.

Riddle said her granddaughter enjoyed singing and playing outdoors, and she loved her brother.

"It's just tragic," uncle David Mann told the CNN affiliate. "It's something that you can't prepare for."

Riddle said she is devastated, but comforted knowing that her granddaughter is in a better place.

"It was God's will. It was her time to go, I guess," she told WLEX. "I just know she's in heaven right now and I know she's in good hands with the Lord."

Caroline Sparks' death comes after two other incidents in recent months involving young children shooting others. In early April, a 4-year-old boy in Tennessee shot and killed a 48-year-old woman, and just days later, 6-year-old Brandon Holt was killed in New Jersey after being shot in the head by his 4-year-old playmate.

I don't know what's more disturbing ... giving a 5 year old a rifle as a present ,or saying a 2 year old being fatally shot was "God's will"...

Edited May 2, 2013 by Evylin

[Ban Hammer 13,334]

giving a kid a firearm at that age isn't the issue. what's disturbing is leaving it where the kids can get ahold of it.

[Teddy B 17,252]

I don't know what's more disturbing ... giving a 5 year old a rifle as a present ,or saying a 2 year old being fatally shot was "God's will"...

Nuts.

[Penny Lane 8,159]

giving a kid a firearm at that age isn't the issue. what's disturbing is leaving it where the kids can get ahold of it.

You're right, a firearm as a birthday present for a 5 year old makes complete sense.

[Teddy B 17,252]

giving a kid a firearm at that age isn't the issue. what's disturbing is leaving it where the kids can get ahold of it.

Might not be an issue for gun nuts. I think most folks would think otherwise.

[decocker 7,198]

let's buy a gun, we can store it in 'the corner'

[mota bhai 2,675]

You're right, a firearm as a birthday present for a 5 year old makes complete sense.

I like it how liberals get upset when people mock savage third world cultures, but are more than willing to mock the cultures that exist right here in America.

[Teddy B 17,252]

You're right, a firearm as a birthday present for a 5 year old makes complete sense.

Martha, change the boys diaper, we is goin shootin!

[Penny Lane 8,159]

I like it how liberals get upset when people mock savage third world cultures, but are more than willing to mock the cultures that exist right here in America.

Me too.

[Teddy B 17,252]

I like it how liberals get upset when people mock savage third world cultures, but are more than willing to mock the cultures that exist right here in America.

They say that mockery is the best form of flattery.

[Niels Bohr 72]

A kid at 5 years old don't have a developed sense of human emotions. Not only that, a trigger is so simple to pull. So, coupled with the kid development to not really understand quite well of the gun ethics and having the trigger so simple to pull, I'd say this is the parents fault in the first place.

[mota bhai 2,675]

A kid at 5 years old don't have a developed sense of human emotions.

There's an intruder in your home. He looks raggedy and poor. He smells awful. He has a gun.

Who do you trust to take care of him?

The person who puts emotion aside and shoots his a**?

Or the person who thinks about how hungry and cold and lonely he must be and puts his gun down and sheds a f***in' tear?

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

A kid at 5 years old don't have a developed sense of human emotions. Not only that, a trigger is so simple to pull. So, coupled with the kid development to not really understand quite well of the gun ethics and having the trigger so simple to pull, I'd say this is the parents fault in the first place.

Not in Kentucky, it isn't. There, this is a crazy accident or God's Will depending on who you ask. It is incomprehensible to me that the parents aren't brought up on charges for what they have done to their kids.

[GandD 5,966]

Not in Kentucky, it isn't. There, this is a crazy accident or God's Will depending on who you ask. It is incomprehensible to me that the parents aren't brought up on charges for what they have done to their kids.

Not nice generalizing all us Kentuckians

And for the record, the discussions I've been hearing here has been mostly about the parents being idiots and allowing their kid to have a loaded gun while unsupervised.

Edited May 2, 2013 by GandD

[SMOKE 1,426]

You're right, a firearm as a birthday present for a 5 year old makes complete sense.

i got one on my 7th bday