Seven people have been charged with reckless endangerment after a 22-year-old woman was shot in a nearby home after they failed to use a backstop while target-shooting in East Cocalico Township last month.

The four men and three women were shooting at a tree stump from a second-floor deck at 830 S. Ridge Road Feb. 28, court papers show.

A stray round traveled about 1,600 feet through a field and a line of trees before it entered the window of a home at 553 Reinholds Road and struck Jamie Horning, who was sitting at a kitchen table.

Horning was struck in the neck and seriously injured. She was released from the hospital just last week.

Three other people were within close proximity to Horning. A total of nine people were in the house at the time.

On Thursday, police charged the following persons with nine counts each of reckless endangerment:

Vernon G. Kurtz, 28, Denver; Kyle Sholly, 23, Denver; Wesley Melhuish, 24, Lebanon; Andrew Richards, 24, Denver; Brianna Rottmund, 20, Newmanstown; Tawny Kissinger, 26, Denver; and Amy Dunn, 34, Denver.

Sholly and Richards live at the South Ridge Road home.

The seven used seven handguns and three rifles to shoot at the tree stump, over a period of several hours, officials said.

The area behind the tree stump had no backstop in place and no other safety precautions were taken to ensure a safe shooting exercise, police wrote in a criminal complaint.

Brett Hambright, spokesman for the Lancaster County District Attorney's Office, said officials don't know which of the seven fired the shot that struck Horning.

"Even if we did, they would still all be charged because they all engaged in reckless behavior," he added.

East Cocalico Township police Detective Keith Neff filed the misdemeanor charges, which were approved by Assistant District Attorney Christopher Lechner. The seven were mailed summons to appear in court.

East Cocalico woman critical from stray bullet; neighbors not surprised by shootinghttps://t.co/k5kTdSCUt9 pic.twitter.com/SKrPsbDZzt — LancasterOnline.com (@LancasterOnline) February 29, 2016

Horning's father, Ken Auker, said his daughter is improving a little each day.

“She should make a full recovery,” he said Thursday. “It is nothing short of a miracle.”

Auker said he and his wife, Joan, are “excited Jamie is still with us” and thank God for her ongoing recovery. Horning was discharged from the hospital March 8.

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She and her husband, Anthony Horning, live a mile away from her parents’ 553 Reinholds home, but were visiting them when the bullet struck her.

The Hornings will be staying with the Aukers for the next several months so someone will always be around to look after Jamie. Jamie’s three brothers and two sisters also still live in the home.

Auker said Jamie could return to work in about three months. She can talk, but Auker said she didn’t want to be interviewed right now.

Doctors left the bullet in her neck, saying it could work its own way out of the body years down the road, he said.

“It is in too critical of an area,” Auker said. “They can’t mess with it.”

The bullet fractured Jamie’s spine, but doctors’ biggest concern was how close the wound was to the main artery going to her brain, he said.

Some neighbors said they hope the filing of charges will serve as a wake-up call in the area that they say has seen an uptick in outdoor shooting.

“I feel relieved,” Barbara Levering said after hearing of the charges Thursday. She lives in the 500 block of Reinholds Road and has been afraid at times in the last few years to work in her garden or put her horses outside with all the shooting in the area in the last few years.

Her young neighbor getting shot “is a terrible thing to happen, but maybe it will stop it, or we’ll get an ordinance here.”

East Cocalico Township does not have a local ordinance limiting the discharge of weapons, but since the shooting, township leaders have begun mulling over enacting an ordinance limiting target shooting.

Levering said she is “absolutely not against the Second Amendment” but incessant shooting in areas with small properties “is too close” and dangerous.

Reinholds Road resident Mike Firestone said he feels the charges are justified.

"That girl didn't ask for it. She was just living her life and minding her own business," Firestone said. "What they did was irresponsible — horribly irresponsible, and they should be held accountable."

He said people are not taking into consideration the build-up of homes in the area.

"While it might've been at one time, it's just not an area anymore where you should be firing guns, hunting or otherwise," Firestone added.

Auker did not want to comment about the township considering a shooting ordinance. He is a hunter, himself. He also avoided talk about charges in the case.

“We just want to let the law do what they do,” he said. “We’re not pushing it or going after anybody.”