A weekend target-practice visit in Cle Elum ended in tragedy for 12-year-old Sydney Darnell of Arlington. On Sunday, May 27, 2018, Sydney was at the home of her mother’s boyfriend, 52-year-old Sean Frick, where she and her mother had been using a .22-caliber lever-action rifle. After firing, Sydney set the rifle on a deck railing and stepped off the deck to check her target. Frick observed the rifle was loaded with the hammer cocked and attempted to lower the hammer; the gun discharged and Sydney was struck in the head.

Her mother called 911 while Frick began CPR. Emergency crews and a sheriff’s deputy assisted and Sydney was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle on life support. She was taken off life support and pronounced dead on Monday, May 28, 2018. The Kittitas County Sheriff’s Office, the county coroner and the King County Medical Examiner investigated and described the shooting as a tragic accident; no arrests or criminal suspect have been reported.

If anyone was present that day or has information about the circumstances around the rifle’s handling, please come forward.