A 12-year-old girl was shot and injured by her 12-year-old cousin Friday afternoon in Fallbrook in what investigators believe was an accident, according to sheriff’s officials.

The two children were playing in a recreational vehicle parked outside a house on Santa Margarita Drive, north of East Mission Road, when one of the children found a gun he thought was unloaded, San Diego County Sheriff’s Lt. Ricardo Lopez said.

The boy fired the gun, striking his cousin on the left side of her collarbone, Lopez said. Adults inside the home heard the gunshot, rushed outside, found the injured girl and called 911 about 1:35 p.m.

Deputies found the girl conscious and alert upon arrival and administered medical aid until firefighters arrived, Sgt. William Munsch said in a statement. Medics airlifted the girl to Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego.


She was in stable condition and still conscious and able to talk to authorities as she was flown away, Lopez said.

If you live in @SDSOFallbrook, be aware of increased law enforcement activity in the 900 block of Santa Margarita Rd. Deputies are investigating an accidental shooting that hurt a child. She was airlifted to @radychildrens. The gun has been safely recovered. — San Diego Sheriff (@SDSheriff) April 19, 2019

Munsch said the motorhome was being prepared for a family trip when the accident occurred.

Department officials said the weapon was a semiautomatic 9 mm handgun that belonged to the boy’s uncle, who is not the girl’s father.


Lopez said the boy, whom investigators believe fired the weapon, was not taken into custody.

“If we are looking at anything, it’s the negligent storage of the firearm causing an injury,” Lopez said, adding investigators were probing “the exact circumstances of how he obtained the firearm and where it was at.”

Standing outside the yellow crime scene tape Friday was 19-year-old Marleen Diaz, who said her cousin is the boy believed to have fired the gun. She said both the boy and the girl are “good kids,” and news of the shooting came as a shock.

“It was an accident” Diaz said. “It wasn’t on purpose. They are young.”