By of the

A 26-year-old woman was shot to death while driving in Milwaukee on Tuesday morning and the shot came from a child in the back seat who somehow got hold of a gun.

The woman was struck once in the back as she drove south on Highway 175 near W. Vliet St., at the southwest end of Washington Park, about 10:30 a.m., the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office said.

The woman was not breathing and had no pulse when deputies arrived. Officials began CPR but she was pronounced dead at the scene.

A sheriff's spokeswoman said late Tuesday afternoon that detectives were interviewing witnesses. The age and gender of the child were not released. She did not know the relationship between the woman and the child, whether the child was in a car seat, what type of weapon was used or how the child managed to get a gun and fire it.

WISN-TV (Channel 12) identified the woman as Patrice Price, a mother of three, who was driving her boyfriend's car. The boyfriend is a security guard and left his weapon in the car, WISN reported. Andre Price told WISN that his daughter was accidentally shot by her 2-year-old son.

Video from the scene showed a blue four-door sedan pulled to the side of the southbound lanes. Brandon Glass was traveling north on Highway 175 when he realized something was wrong on the other side of the freeway, he told WTMJ-TV (Channel 4). "I saw a blue sedan that had its door open and it was stopped in the middle of the freeway. And I saw a body lying outside of that," said Glass.

Another witness told Fox 6 News she saw bystanders rushing to the car.

"People were panicking and you could tell people were generally trying to help," said Kourtney Blevins. "I know there's some little boys down there, which they put in a police car. It was two little boys. It looked like some kids were involved, unfortunately."

The southbound lanes of Highway 175 were shut down Tuesday for several hours during the incident, reopening about 1:45 p.m.

Last month in Florida, a woman was shot in the back while driving when her 4-year-old son picked up a .45-caliber handgun. Jamie Gilt, 31, survived the shooting. Gilt, a pro-gun activist, legally owned the firearm and maintained a Facebook page called "Jamie Gilt for Gun Sense."

Law enforcement officials said Gilt had placed the unholstered gun under the front seat and it slid out as she pulled a horse trailer to pick up a horse. The toddler unbuckled his seat, picked up the gun and fired it at his mother.