Nine-year-old kills shooting instructor in Uzi mishap

An Uzi pistol is displayed at the Israeli Military Industries (IMI) in Ramat Hasharon on November 11, 1997. FILE PHOTO | AFP

WASHINGTON

A 9-year-old girl learning to fire an Uzi submachine gun was unable to control the weapon, accidentally killing her instructor, news reports said Wednesday.

The tragedy occurred Monday at the Last Stop gun range in the western US state of Arizona, where the girl had been taken by her parents for firearms lessons, US news reports said.

Officials said the girl had successfully managed to control the weapon in the "single shot" mode.

But when shooting instructor Charles Vacca, 39, switched the Uzi into the fully automatic setting, the force of the gunfire caused the weapon to rebound upward, and an errant bullet fired by the child struck him in the head.

Vacca died in a hospital a short time later, officials said.

Authorities later released a video of the tragic shooting lesson, which had been filmed by the girl's parents. They edited out the scene showing the fatal shot.

A manager at the firing range told NBC News that firearms training at the Last Stop gun range can begin for people as young as eight years old.

Firearms instruction at other shooting ranges in the United States, which has the world's highest per capita number of guns, can start when trainees are as young as seven years old.