Joseph Austin Smith, 30, a Wichita resident, died at the scene Saturday morning minutes after 911 arrived and tried CPR and other life-saving measures on him, according to a news release from the state’s office. Sumner County Sheriff obtained from Insider.
Smith got into the passenger seat of a pickup truck that had hunting gear, a loaded rifle and a dog in the back, according to the sheriff’s office. It was then that the dog, which belonged to the owner of the truck, “stepped on the rifle causing the weapon to discharge,” the statement read.
The shooting occurred north of the city of Gueda Springs on the 1600 block of East 80th Street South. The driver was uninjured, according to NBC.
This isn’t the first time a dog has accidentally pulled a gun and killed or injured a human in a vehicle.
A 2015 Washington Post analysis of 10 dog shootings between 2004 and 2015 found that half of the incidents occurred during a hunting accident and 40 percent occurred in a vehicle.
In Russia, a similar incident occurred in 2018 involving a man and his dog while on a hunting trip. After being freed from the back of a pickup truck, the dog’s paw caught on the trigger of a gun pointed at its owner’s stomach.
