Shooting Instructor Dies After Being Accidentally Shot In The Head By Student

HOLLISTON, MA - JANUARY 23: Students, including April and Kevin Mach, use laser-pointer guns in a basic firearms safety class at Mass Firearms School, on January 23, 2013 in Holliston, Massachusetts. The laser guns h... HOLLISTON, MA - JANUARY 23: Students, including April and Kevin Mach, use laser-pointer guns in a basic firearms safety class at Mass Firearms School, on January 23, 2013 in Holliston, Massachusetts. The laser guns help students learn how to aim at a target. The class costs $100 and is required before getting a permit to have a gun in the state. Students learn about gun laws and gun safety and also get an opportunity to shoot a few different types of firearms on the indoor shooting range. Massachusetts is one of the few states that require a license just to own a gun. (Photo by Melanie Stetson Freeman/The Christian Science Monitor MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

An Arizona shooting instructor has died after being accidentally shot in the head by a 9-year-old student Monday morning.

Mohave County Sheriff’s officials told the Associated Press that the 39-year-old shooting instructor was injured at about 10 a.m. at an outdoor range in Dolan Springs, Ariz. He was then airlifted to a medical center in Las Vegas, where he died later that night.

Sheriff Jim McCabe told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the girl, who was vacationing from New Jersey with her parents, had safely fired a 9 mm Uzi several times in the “single-shot” mode.

The firearm was put into “fully automatic” mode the next time she fired, McCabe said, with the instructor, identified as Charles Vacca, standing to her left. The weapon recoiled and she lost control of the Uzi while firing an undetermined number of rounds. Vacca suffered at least one gunshot to the head.

“The guy just dropped,” McCabe told the Review-Journal.

No charges would be filed, the sheriff said.

This post has been updated.

Latest Livewire
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: