Giant slingshot kills Roseville boy

Photo: whiteafrican

A slingshot accident proves deadly.

Slingshots are the prop of choice for rapscallions from Dennis the Menace to Bart Simpson -- and probably that pesky kid who lives down the block from your house, too. The one who seems like he's ready to put someone's eye out. But until today, we hadn't really thought of slingshots as deadly weapons.

That was before we read the story about the dead 12-year-old from Roseville. The boy, whose name has not been released, was messing around with a large slingshot along with a friend in Bruce Russel Park yesterday; one with six- to seven-foot lengths of elastic tubing tied to a 9-foot-tall swing set at the park. They used it to launch progressively larger and larger stones into the air.

When they got up to a six pound rock, it came back down and hit the 12-year-old in the chest. He was rushed to Hennepin County Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.