A 9-year old girl learning how to shoot an Uzi sub-machine gun accidentally killed her trainer at an Arizona shooting range after the fully automatic weapon jerked back, authorities said.
The veteran instructor, Charles Vacca, 39, died in the hospital late Monday night.
The girl, who has not been named, was learning to use the Israeli-made Uzi at the Last Stop gun range in White Hills, Arizona. She was with her parents on a holiday from New Jersey, according to the Mohave County Sheriff’s office, CNN reported.
The establishment allows children aged 8 to 17 years old to shoot a weapon if accompanied by a parent or a guardian.
At the time of the shooting, Vacca was standing to the girl’s left while showing her how to shoot the high-powered weapon, officials said.
Then the girl “pulled the trigger on the automatic Uzi, the recoil sent the gun over her head,” said investigators and added that Vacca was accidentally shot in the head.
He was then airlifted to the University Medical Center in Las Vegas but declared dead shortly after.
The video of the incident was uploaded on YouTube, wherein the girl is seen beside Vacca in camouflage pants.
The young girl was able to fire the weapon several times in single-shoot mode, The Telegraph reported. But Vacca switched the Uzi in the fully automatic mode.
“All right, full auto!” Vacca said in the video.
Then bullets sprayed, and the child screamed at the end of the footage.
“The guy just dropped,” Sheriff Jim McCabe told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Charges would not be filed against the shooting range since it is a licensed operation.
