Pictured: Mother, 29, tragically shot dead at a Walmart by her two-year-old son when he accidentally fired licensed gun concealed in her purse

Authorities in northern Idaho have identified the mother shot dead by her 2-year-old son as 29-year-old Veronica J. Rutledge of Blackfoot.

According to police, the boy was seated in a shopping cart when he reached into his mother's purse at a Walmart store, accessed the concealed gun and fired.

Kootenai County sheriff's spokesman Stu Miller said that the shooting was accidental and occurred in the store in Hayden, Idaho, a town about 40 miles northeast of Spokane, Washington.

Authorities said the woman was shopping in the electronics department with what are believed to be her four children on Tuesday morning when the accident happened.

They said she was visiting from her home town of Blackfoot, Idaho and looking to spend some gift cards the family received over the holidays.

The deadly incident was captured on video surveillance and several store employees also witnessed the event.

Miller said the woman, subsequently identified as Rutledge, had a concealed weapons permit.

The Walmart was evacuated and closed after the shooting, and the store's manager says it will reopen tomorrow at 6am.

Walmart responded to the tragic shooting in a statement issued this afternoon by spokesman Aaron Mullins: 'A very sad incident occurred at our store today involving the death of a female customer. We are fully cooperating with the Kootenai County Sheriff's deputies as they investigate this matter.'

The victim's father-in-law, Terry Rutledge, told The Associated Press that Veronica Rutledge 'was a beautiful, young, loving mother.'

'She was not the least bit irresponsible,' Terry Rutledge said. 'She was taken much too soon.'

Idaho National Laboratory senior chemical engineer Vince Maio worked with Ms Rutledge on a research paper about using glass ceramic to store nuclear waste, The Spokesman-Review said.

'She had a lot of maturity for her age,' he told the newspaper. 'Her work was impeccable. She found new ways to do things that we did before and she found ways to do them better.'

'She was a beautiful person,' he added.

In neighboring Washington state, a three-year-old boy was seriously injured in November when he was accidentally shot in the face by a 4-year-old neighbor. The boy was wounded as the children played in a home in Lake Stevens, about 30 miles north of Seattle.

In April, a 2-year-old boy apparently shot and killed his 11-year-old sister while they and their siblings played with a gun inside a Philadelphia home. Authorities said the gun was believed to have been brought into the home by the mother's boyfriend.

Hayden is a politically conservative town of about 9,000 people just north of Coeur d'Alene in Idaho's northern panhandle.

Culred from:Daily mail