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.
