An 84-year-old Lakeside woman was killed Wednesday when a stray bullet fired by one of three teen-agers, who were illegally target shooting on a nearby hill, went through her kitchen window and struck her in the upper chest, sheriff's deputies said.
Although an inquiry is continuing, authorities have initially ruled the shooting as accidental.
Rose Cudigan, of the 1300 block of Ha Hana Road, where she had lived for 40 years, was pronounced dead at 9:27 a.m. at AMI Valley Medical Center, where she had been taken by paramedics, authorities said.
Her husband, Raymand L. Cudigan, who was also in the kitchen, was unharmed, and called deputies for help, said Sheriff's Sgt. Danny Goodrich.
Cudigan was so distraught after the shooting that he had to be taken to the hospital, deputies said.
The teen-agers were shooting at a tin can with a .22-caliber rifle at about 8 a.m. on a hill about 100 yards north of the Cudigans' home in Lakeside's Lakeview neighborhood, Goodrich said.