Investigators say Wilson County Deputy Daniel Fanning on Saturday was showing his weapons to a relative in a bedroom of his Lebanon home when the toddler came in and picked up a gun off the bed. Sheriff Robert Bryan says the weapon discharged, hitting 48-year-old Josephine Fanning.
She was pronounced dead at the scene. The child is not related to her or her husband.
Bryan says the shooting was a terrible accident and that within seconds of Fanning placing the gun on the bed, the toddler picked it up.
The gun was not Fanning's service weapon and the sheriff says the deputy's weapons are normally stored in a safe.
