A Wichita, Kansas resident was on a hunting trip with his dog and a companion. The dog and hunting gear, including a loaded rifle owned by his friend, were in the back of the pickup truck.
Joseph Austin Smith, 30, was tragically shot in the back, when his dog accidentally stepped on the gun.
Smith was sitting in the front passenger seat. The driver sitting next to him was not hurt.
EMS received a 911 call at around 10 a.m. on Saturday. Their attempts to save Smith were futile.
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 2022, in a similar incident, a Turkish hunter, Ozgur Gevrekoglu, 32, was killed when his dog accidentally discharged a loaded rifle.
In another incident in 2018, a man from New Mexico was shot by his dog when the Rottweiler mix’s paw hit the trigger while the man and his pet were inside a truck. The victim suffered broken ribs and collarbone but survived.
