After fatal shooting of toddler, Kentucky town grieves and hushes up
New York Times
Monday, May 6, 2013 1:00am
BURKESVILLE, Ky. — Last Monday, Kristian Sparks and his sister, Caroline, visited a Fred's Super Dollar store here. A store manager recalled that it was an ordinary shopping trip, saying that the boy was outgoing and energetic, his little sister was cute and their grandmother was "like any grandmother — she bought them anything they wanted."
The next day Kristian, 5, shot and killed his 2-year-old sister with a gun marketed for children as "My First Rifle" in what authorities said was an accident.
The death has convulsed this rural community of 1,800 in south-central Kentucky, where everyone is now riven by grief. But as mourners gathered for Caroline's funeral on Saturday, there were strong emotions directed at the outside world, which has been quick to pass judgment on the parents and a way of life in which many see nothing unusual about introducing children to firearms while they are still in kindergarten.
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"This town, there's nothing like it. They pull together," said Anne Beall, a family friend, as she left the Norris-New Funeral Home. Its online obituary showed Caroline as a smiling cherub in a flower-petal collar.
Beall, a 64-year-old retiree, said she had not heard anyone in town call the parents irresponsible for giving a gun to a 5-year-old or for leaving it unlocked. "Pointing fingers doesn't really accomplish anything," she said. "Terrible mistakes happen, and I think that's what happened here."
The authorities said the children's mother, Stephanie Sparks, briefly stepped outside the family's trailer home when Kristian shot his sister in the chest. Their father, Chris Sparks, shoes horses and works in a lumber mill.
The parents are taking this really hard, said a woman leaving the funeral who declined to give her name.
A teenage girl said strangers from around the country had written scathing comments online blaming the parents, deepening the town's pain and anger.
The shooting came after the recent failure in Washington of gun control legislation inspired by the shootings in Newtown, Conn., which exposed a bitter divide on guns. But Burkesville seemed to want no part of being a symbol in a national debate.
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http://www.tampabay.com/news/nation/after-fatal-shooting-of-toddler-kentucky-town-grieves-and-hushes-up/2119398
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