Family and friends of Patrice Price mourn her death during a vigil on Milwaukee’s north side. Price was shot to death by her 2-year-old son, who found a handgun in the back of the car she was driving and fired a shot Tuesday morning on Highway 175 near Vliet St. Credit: Meg Jones

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One day after Patrice Price was accidentally shot to death by her 2-year-old son while driving, her friends and family gathered to remember her as a woman who loved her children.

"She loved shopping, she loved dancing, she loved her kids. She loved looking fabulous," said her sister, Cherneice Stewart.

The 26-year-old Milwaukee woman was driving her boyfriend's car when a gun slid out from under the driver's seat and her 2-year-old son picked it up and fired it from the back seat. The bullet went through the driver's seat and hit Price in the back as she drove south on Highway 175 near W. Vliet St. about 10:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Adding to the tragedy was the fact Price had borrowed a car from her boyfriend, a security guard, because hers had been stolen four days earlier. When her car was stolen, the car seats for her sons — the 2-year-old and a 1-year-old — were also stolen, said Stewart.

Deputies found her boyfriend's security guard gun belt on the floor of the front passenger seat, and a .40-caliber gun on the floor of the back seat behind the driver's seat, according to the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office.

Immediately after the shooting, other drivers stopped and pushed the car out of traffic before deputies arrived. Price was pronounced dead at the scene despite efforts from deputies and paramedics to revive her, authorities said.

Price's mother, May Watson, and the 1-year-old son were in the front passenger seat at the time of the shooting, and neither child was in a car seat, according to a news release. Stewart said her mother was able to put her foot on the brake and steer the car toward the side of the road as her daughter slumped over from the gunshot wound.

A vigil drew about 50 people to a family member's home at N. 37th St. and W. Custer Ave. Wednesday night. Friends and family members hugged and cried, talked about Price and waited for Price's 7-year-old daughter to arrive before they released dozens of brightly colored Mylar balloons into they sky in Price's memory. Mourners gathered around the little girl in a brightly colored pink flowered jacket to hug her and wipe away tears.

"We are going to appreciate the life Patrice led," said Pastor Charles Barnett. "Grieve, cry, release your emotions. Above all, Patrice was a good woman."

In addition to her children, Price also took care of her sister, who was paralyzed in a shooting several months ago. A Chicago native, Price moved to Milwaukee about five years ago and was working at a group home when she died.

"She always kept a smile on her face and she was going through a lot," said Michelle Kane, who had been friends with Price for about two years.

Price reported her Nissan vehicle stolen about 9 a.m. Friday near N. 12th St. and W. North Ave. and officers have not recovered it or made any arrests, a Milwaukee police spokesman said Wednesday.

"She would have never had a gun in the vehicle," said Kane. Her child "never would have found it and she would have been alive if those punks wouldn't have stolen her car."

A fund has been set up in her name to help with funeral expenses and for donations to her children — Patrice Price Memorial Fund, at any branch of Educators Credit Union.

"The baby's going to need some therapy," Kane said of the son who pulled the trigger. "Kids are going to be cruel and he's going to find out in the wrong way, and I don't want it to affect him in the long term."

In Milwaukee, negligent handling of a firearm was found to be the primary factor in three homicides in 2015, compared with one in 2014, according to a Milwaukee Police Department report.

It also was determined to be the primary factor in 16 shootings — or 2% of the total shootings — in Milwaukee last year, compared to 15 shootings in 2014. Not included in that total are accidental, self-inflicted shootings. Last year, the city recorded 33 such shootings, one of which was fatal.

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 belt, picked up the gun and fired it at his mother.