An 8-year-old boy died after he was shot in the chest “with a high powered air rifle” in southern Arizona, law enforcement officials said Tuesday.
The Cochise County Sheriff’s Office learned about the shooting in the 1000 block of Pottery Lane in St. David at 5:07 p.m. MST on Monday, officials said.
That’s where deputies found the young victim “who had been shot in the center of his chest cavity with a high powered air rifle that shoots” .22-caliber pellets, according to a sheriff’s statement.
This kind of rifle is often used for recreation, such as target shooting, and not hunting, Cochise County Sheriff’s spokesperson Carol Capas said Wednesday.
The adult shooter’s identity is known to detectives, who have the weapon and are preparing a report for the county attorney for possible prosecution, Capas added.
No one was immediately arrested.
First responders first took the child to “the intersection of Highway 80 and East Apache Powder Road,” about a mile away, where he as going to be picked up by a medical helicopter, the sheriff said.
But rescuers opted, instead, to rush him “via ground to the Benson Hospital for emergency care,” about six miles away, officials said.
He was pronounced dead at the hospital at about 6 p.m.
The late decision to drive the victim to the hospital instead of using a helicopter didn’t cost first responders any time, Capas added.
This shooting unfolded a little more than 50 miles southeast of the University of Arizona and about 20 miles northwest of the wild west boomtown of Tombstone.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
