A hunter in Wichita, Kansas was tragically accidentally shot by his dog while they were in a pickup truck on a hunting trip.
The dog was in the back of the truck, with his owner in the front passenger seat. A companion was in the driver’s seat. The loaded rifle and gear were in the back of the truck near the dog.
Joseph Austin Smith, 30, was tragically shot in the back when his dog accidentally stepped on the gun.
The driver sitting next to him was not hurt.
EMS arrived but they were not able to save Smith.
Police concluded the unfortunate incident was an accident, and no further investigations were conducted.
The Gun Violence Archive has already tracked 101 cases of accidental shootings this year. In 2022, 1,600 unintentional shootings were recorded.
In an incident in 2018 in New Mexico, a man was shot by his Rottweiler mix when the dog’s paw hit the trigger while the man and his pet were inside a truck. The victim suffered broken ribs and collarbone but survived.
In 2022, a similar incident occurred in Turkey. A Turkish hunter, Ozgur Gevrekoglu, 32, was killed when his dog accidentally shot him with a loaded rifle.