Girl, 6, killed after wandering onto Minn. freeway

A 6-year-old girl wandered into freeway traffic near Minneapolis, where she was struck and killed by an SUV in the first lane she entered, the Minnesota State Patrol said.

Kallie Nichole Palmer was killed after she walked onto Interstate 35W in Burnsville, about 20 miles south of Minneapolis. She had been playing at a friend's home about 7:15 p.m. Friday when she apparently climbed over a short chain-link fence that separated the yard from the road, authorities said.

Other children who were playing with Kallie admitted to investigators they were all on the wrong side of the fence, which is about waist-high on an adult, State Patrol Lt. Eric Roeske said.

"Kallie is a very special little girl who will be greatly missed by her friends and family," the Palmer family said Saturday in a statement released by the Minnesota State Patrol.

Roeske said it's not clear why she approached the highway because she lived within a mile of the home where she was playing, "so it wasn't like the freeway was something new."

He didn't know how many children were present with Kallie, but said the oldest was 11. If there were adults at the scene, they were probably indoors at the time, he added.

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