A 3-year-old Tennessee girl accidentally shot herself to death after confusing her father’s .380-caliber pistol with a Nintendo Wii game controller, according to the The Tennessean.
The paper quotes Wilson County Sheriff Terry Ashe as saying Cheyenne Alexis McKeehan picked up the deadly weapon from an end table and shot herself in the abdomen in her family’s home rural Norene home Saturday night.
Investigators said the preschooler most likely mistook the pistol for a Wii game controller that looks like a gun.
Ashe displayed two guns taken from the home, one the Wii controller and the other the handgun which killed Cheyenne. “There’s little chance a 3-year-old would differentiate between the two,” he said, according to the Daily Mail.
The girl’s stepfather, Douglas Cronberger, and her mother, Tina Ann Cronberger, both 32, were home when the shooting happened, Ashe said, and her mother was using a computer just a few feet away, The Tennessean reported.
According to a sheriff’s department statement, Cronberger had taken the usually unloaded gun from a cabinet and loaded it to go look for what he thought was a prowler.Afterward, he put the gun on an end table in the living room and forgot about it, the statement says.
Cheyenne had learned to use a gun by playing with a Wii game for days, the statement said.
“The big message we’re trying to tell parents is if you’ve got a gun, put it up, especially if you have children,” Ashe said.
Cheyenne was pronounced dead by doctors at the University Medical Center in Lebanon shortly after she arrived there.
No criminal charges are pending, authorities daid, but information from the sheriff’s office will be turned over to prosecutors, The Tenneesean reported.
The girl’s teacher described her as “a sweet, spunky little girl who will be sadly missed.”
Ashe said a 1-year-old also lives in the home.
Terry AsheNintendo WiiVideo GamesHobbies and PastimesGamesCulture and LifestyleThe Tennessean NewspaperVideo Game Consoles and AccessoriesTechnologyScience and TechnologyElectronicsConsumer Electronics
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