(AP)
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A 4-year-old Utah boy was helping his father by trying to make other children smile for a picture when a 6-foot-tall tombstone that weighed hundreds of pounds fell on the boy and killed him at a historic cemetery, family members and friends said. Carson Dean Cheney was with his family in the resort town of Park City on Thursday evening when the headstone toppled onto him after some metal connecting it to its pedestal broke, his grandmother Geri Gibbs told the AP. She said it took three men to pull the stone off of Carson.
The boy's father, Zac Cheney, does photography in his spare time and was taking portraits of another family at the Glenwood Cemetery, said Curtis Morley, a co-worker and family friend. They chose the old cemetery because of its extensive landscaping, he said. Morley said some of the children being photographed were not being responsive, so Carson tried to help his dad by pretending to be a leprechaun and making them laugh. The boy went behind a tombstone and was poking his head out from behind it when it fell on him. "Carson passed away while trying to make others smile," said Morley.
