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Boy, 9, Dies When Tombstone Falls on Him

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Associated Press

A tombstone fell on a third-grader and killed him during a field trip to a Revolutionary War cemetery Wednesday.

Nine-year-old James Wies appeared to have died of a skull fracture, said Richland County coroner’s investigator Paul Jones. He said the boy jumped atop the 5-foot-tall tombstone and grabbed it when it toppled backward.

“It was just a freak accident,” Jones said. “With the injury he sustained, and with the way it landed on him, it was definitely fatal. No one could have done anything.”

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School Supt. Mark Stock said the field trip was an annual event for third-graders.

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