(GoRealNewsNow.com) – A 58-year-old man in Louisiana shot a 14-year-old neighbor girl in the head who was playing hide-and-seek in his yard.
The incident occurred in Starks, a small town near Louisiana’s border with Texas. Suspect David Doyle told the police he began firing after he saw “shadows” on his property.
The Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office stated that the man had been charged with “aggravated battery, four counts of aggravated assault with a firearm, and the illegal discharge of a firearm,” as The New York Post reported.
“Several juveniles were playing hide and seek in the area and were hiding on the neighbor’s property,” the sheriff’s office said.
“[The suspect] observed shadows outside his home, at which time he went inside and retrieved his firearm,” it added.
“He then advised detectives he went back outside and observed people running away from his property, at which time he began shooting at them and unknowingly hit the girl,” the statement elaborates.
The report indicates the girl survived as she “miraculously” suffered only non-lethal injuries and was hospitalized.
Her family told local news outlet KPLC-TV that her recovery was going well.
The victim’s family and the suspect live on a dead-end road with only three homes, the third belonging to a girl’s relative.
As of Tuesday, Doyle remained in custody at the Calcasieu Correctional Center, with his bond set at $300,000.
The shooting of the 14-year-old girl in Starks, Louisiana, follows a spate of similar incidents in which “young victims [are] targeted by older people reaching for their guns,” the report notes.
Thus, on April 13, a homeowner in Kansas City, Missouri, shot in the head 16-year-old Ralph Yarl, a black honors student, who was going to pick up his younger twin brothers but rang the wrong doorbell.
Yarl survived even though he was critically injured.
The suspect, Andrew Lester, an 84-year-old white man, has pleaded not guilty to charges of “first-degree assault and armed criminal action.”
On April 15, 65-year-old Kevin Monahan shot and killed 20-year-old Kaylin Gillis, who had pulled up his driveway searching for a friend’s home.
The incident occurred in Hebron, New York state. Monahan has pleaded not guilty to a second-degree murder charge.
According to the preliminary investigation, Gillis was hit with one out of two bullets Monahan fired while the driver tried speeding away.
Monahan’s lawyer Kurt Mauser said the car was coming to the driveway “at a high rate of speed” and creating “an atmosphere and a fear that there was menace going on.” He claimed Monahan didn’t know the gun was loaded.
Louisiana neighbor allegedly shoots girl, 14, in the head as she plays hide-and-seek https://t.co/nYVgKYUjMZ pic.twitter.com/YkXpQT1mbp
— New York Post (@nypost) May 9, 2023
