No criminal charges will be filed after a probe into a gun range incident that left an instructor dead determined it was an “industrial accident.”
County law enforcement officials in Arizona said on Thursday that no charges are pending after a 9-year-old accidentally shot her instructor in the head with an Uzi.
“Based on the video, the Sheriff’s Office has determined no charges are pending,” the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement, adding that the shooting was “being viewed as an industrial accident.”
From Reuters:
The shooting at the Arizona Last Stop in White Hills, near the Nevada border, has touched off debate over shooting ranges offering machine guns to casual visitors and the wisdom of giving children access to high-powered firearms.
A video clip released by the sheriff’s office of the moments just before the fatal shooting and circulating on the Internet shows Charles Vacca giving a girl in pink shorts and a braided ponytail hands-on instruction as she aims the Uzi at a black and white target shaped like the silhouette of a man.
…
Vacca, 39, had been standing next to the girl when the recoil forced her arm over her head, the sheriff’s office said. Authorities have not said how many times Vacca was hit but NBC News reported he was killed by a single bullet to the head.
State occupational health and safety officials are conducting their own probe into the incident. A spokeswoman confirmed that the agency was investigating, but said state law prevented her from discussing details.
SOURCE: Reuters | PHOTO CREDIT: Screengrab
