WASHINGTON – A Virginia man accidentally shot and killed himself while waiting in a vehicle outside a Spotsylvania County grocery store Sunday.

The Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office says the 45-year-old man’s wife was returning a movie at a Giant Food store in Harrison Crossing, Va. at about 5 p.m. Sunday. While the man was waiting in the driver’s seat of the vehicle, it appears he tried to unbuckle his seat belt and mistakenly hit the trigger of his handgun, shooting himself in the hip area.

The man — a Spotsylvania County resident — immediately told his wife he had shot himself, authorities say. Bystanders and a sheriff’s deputy who arrived at the scene administered first aid, but the man was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Officials say there were several children in the vehicle at the time of the incident as well.

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