A girl in Southern California is in the hospital after a bullet struck her in a mall while she was visiting the Easter bunny.
A 9-year-old girl is being treated for a gunshot wound after being shown at the Mall of Victor Valley in Victorville, California. Police say a mall store owner opened fire at two shoplifters but accidentally hit the child who was about to snap a photo with the mall’s Easter bunny.
Police say the store owner, Marquel Cockrell, 20, “fired multiple shots at the shoplifters.” In a statement, police say Cockrell’s “shots missed the shoplifters and instead hit the 9-year-old female victim,” the statement said. The child – Ava Chruniak – was shot three times. Two of the shots were in her arm, according to her grandmother. One of the bullets fractured a bone.
“And it’s the kind of fracture they can’t surgically fix. She’s going to have to wear a special brace for it, and it’s going to take a lot longer to heal,” said the girl’s grandmother, Robin Moraga-Saldarelli. Ava is in stable condition.
Cockrell took off running and fled from California and into Nevada following the incident. Police arrested him in his car at around 9:30 p.m. in Clark County.
