US girl, 4, dies after shooting self in chest

TAMPA — A four-yearold girl in Tampa, Florida has died after accidentally shooting herself in the chest while searching for something sweet in her grandmother’s purse, according to a report in The Washington Post on Thursday. “Yannely Zoller was looking for a candy inside her grandmother’s purse when she found a gun instead, and then accidentally shot and killed herself,” The Washington Post said, quoting The Tampa Bay Times.

The girl’s father said he was about to pick up his daughter from his mother ’s place and was surprised to see all the police lights.

The girl’s grandparents Michael and Christie Zoller were both home at the time, authorities said.

The Hillsborough County medical examiner’s office said Yanelly died of a gunshot to the chest, which perforated her lungs, aorta and esophagus. The manner of death was listed as an accident.

As The Post’s John Woodrow Cox reported last week, an average of 23 children were shot each day in 2015, according to a review of the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Consumer Product Safety Commission. That’s at least one bullet every 63 minutes.