'So Much Disbelief': Little Boy Dies After 6-Foot-Tall Tombstone Falls On Him

(AP) – A 6-foot-tall tombstone that weighed hundreds of pounds fell on and killed a 4-year-old boy who was posing for photos with family and friends at a historic cemetery in a Utah ski resort town, authorities said.

Carson Dean Cheney was holding onto the headstone Thursday when some metal connecting it to the pedestal broke, said Park City police Capt. Phil Kirk. Some of the children being photographed were not being responsive, so Carson tried to help the photographer – his father – by pretending to be a leprechaun and making them laugh, said Curtis Morley, a family friend. Morley said the boy went behind a tombstone and was playfully poking his head out from behind it when it fell on him.

“Carson passed away while trying to make others smile,” Morley said.