Stray Arrow Pierces 3-Year-Old Girl Playing With Friends At Party, Man Arrested

A three-year-old girl was injured after a stray arrow pierced her chest at a graduation party at Silverhill in Alabama, police said. A man was arrested in connection with the incident.

The incident happened Saturday when the girl was playing with other kids on an inflatable waterslide in the backyard of a home on Woodpecker Drive. A neighbor, at the time, was practicing with his bow and arrow. The Silverhill Police say one of his shots deflected off the pile of dirt he was targeting, flew over the fence and hit the girl in the chest.

The neighbor was identified as 35-year-old Ryan Archer of Mobile. He was arrested and charged with second-degree assault, WKRG reported. He was booked into the Robertsdale jail Saturday evening.

The girl was flown to a hospital but has since been released and is resting back home, WEAR-TV reported.

Though witnesses called the entire episode an “unfortunate incident,” Silverhill police officials said it was Archer's reckless behavior that caused the accident. Officers also said the man had been drinking that day, contributing to his poor judgment.

Under Alabama law, a person can be charged with second-degree assault when he or she "recklessly causes serious physical injury to another person by means of a deadly weapon or a dangerous instrument."

According to police, the child's survival was a miracle, and that the shot would have been fatal had it been just a few centimeters higher.

The incident left neighbors traumatized. "I’m worried about my neighbors’ kids, I have small children myself and it’s just a little nerve-racking," one Erin Johnson told WKRG.

"I think everyone just needs to be more aware of what they’re doing, we have a lot of kids in this neighborhood, riding bikes, and everything," he added.

Last year, a 62-year-old South Dakota man was killed after being accidentally hit by an arrow shot by his son during a hunting incident. Though first responders performed life-saving measures on the man, he succumbed to the injuries.