A Vancouver-area man is dead following a freak accident during a weekend pistol competition at a Kamloops shooting range.
RCMP Cpl. Jodi Shelkie said police were called to the Kamloops Target Sports Association range at about 1 p.m. on Sunday. She said a 50-year-old man who had been taking part in a shooting competition accidentally shot himself. He later died at hospital.
Association president Jim Sloper told KTW a two-day competition was slated to wrap up on Sunday when the accident took place.
“I think there were about 120 competitors,” he said. “It was unfortunate. Somebody dropped his firearm and it went off. He was an experienced shooter, an instructor.”
Sloper said he can’t recall a similar incident ever taking place in the past.
“The club’s been in existence for 100-some-odd years and we’ve never had anything like this happen,” he said.
Sloper described the competition as a two-day International Practical Shooting Confederation target competition.
“As far as I know, it was cut short,” he said. “I don’t know exactly what happened.”
The investigation is ongoing.
