9-Year-Old Girl Mistakenly Shot While Waiting For Easter Bunny By Shop-Owner Going After Shoplifters
A 9-year-old girl was shot when she was caught in the middle of gunshots fired by a store owner who chased and started shooting at two people who had just shoplifted from his store.
Marqel Cockrell, 20, owns “Sole Addicts” inside the Mall of Victor Valley in Victorville, California. Cockrell shot the girl, Ava Chruniak while shooting at the shoplifters on Tuesday. Chruniak was waiting in line to get her picture taken with the Easter bunny outside of the store.
“Cockrell fired multiple shots at the shoplifters. Cockrell’s shots missed the shoplifters and instead hit the 9-year-old female victim,” a police report from Victorville Police Department said. The shoplifters did not suffer any gunshot wounds.
Chruniak was treated by medical personnel and transported by air to Loma Linda University Medical Center. She was left with three gunshot wounds, including two in her arm, according to her grandmother, Robin Moraga-Saldarelli NBC News reported.
Cockrell fled the state following the shooting but was arrested in Nevada by authorities on Wednesday. He was taken to the Clark County Jail on an extraditable warrant, for attempted murder, on a $1 million bond, according to the report.
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