VERMILION COUNTY, Ill. (WCIA) — Authorities are investigating after a woman was shot by a 4-year-old child over the weekend.
Marita Hile, 64, of Westville, Illinois, was shot around 12:30 p.m. Sunday while driving near a gas station in Tilton, Illinois, said investigators with the Vermilion County Sheriff’s Department.
Officers said Hile and the child, a relative of the woman, were traveling in the car when the child found a gun. The child accidentally fired the gun into the driver seat and hit Hile, according to the Champaign County coroner.
Hile crashed the car into a sign at the gas station. She was taken to an Urbana, Illinois, hospital, where officers said she died from the gunshot wound.
The incident is under investigation.
