The 9-year-old girl who accidentally shot and killed a shooting range instructor with an Uzi said that the weapon was 'too much for her,' according to a police report released Tuesday.
The Mohave County Sheriff's Office incident report, which redacts the name of the girl, as well as a brother and sister, notes that in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, the family did not realize the instructor Charles Vacca, 39, was fatally wounded.
According to a statement from a Deputy B. Cassidy, the father - who had fired the sub-machine gun first - told officers 'it appeared that (the girl) was injured as she was holding her shoulder. (The father) said the family huddled around her and was unaware that Vacca had been shot.
The father then said he saw another instructor run to the table and begin helping Vacca, and it was only then they realized the scope of the tragedy.
'(The father) said he immediately brought his family to the restaurant so his children would not see what happened.'
Cassidy then spoke to the girl's mother, and she was the one to first show them a cell-phone video of the incident.
'(The mother) was visibly upset and shaken,' the report reads. She said 'the gun went off and saw (her daughter) drop the gun. (The girl) turned to her and told her the gun was too much for her and it hurt her shoulder. (The mother) said no one knew Vacca was shot until the other instructor ran over.'
The report indicates that police never interviewed the children involved, including the shooter, because they were too traumatized by the event. The case was cleared as an 'accidental shooting.'
The family, who is believed to reside in New Jersey, had taken a shuttle on Aug. 25 from Las Vegas, about 60 miles south, to the Last Stop gun range in White Hills, Arizona.
IN-DEPTH - Hasani Gittens
First published September 2 2014, 11:16 AM
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