Newly-released audio illustrates a Columbus, Ohio family’s confusion and terror after a local police officer accidentally shot a then-4-year-old girl while being asked to help the girl’s mother.

Note: the video below plays automatically.

The audio, aired on Inside Edition, depicts the June 19 incident involving the officer to a plea for help from Brandie Kelly.

ADVERTISEMENT

Kelly had flagged the officer down after her sister, Andrea Ellis, cut herself badly on a piece of glass. Kelly can be heard telling the officer, “Sir, can you get me a paramedic? I need a paramedic here” while on the phone with emergency dispatchers.

Police said at the time of the incident that Ellis’ dog charged at the officer, forcing him to fire at it. But instead of hitting the dog, the officer hit the girl, Ava Ellis, in the leg, causing a bone to shatter.

“She asked me several times, ‘Mommy, am I gonna die?'” Andrea Ellis said.

The Inquisitr reported that Ellis later identified the officer in a Facebook post as Jonathan Thomas, saying that when Kelly rejected his argument that the dog charged at him, Thomas “told [Kelly] to stop yelling at him and walked back to his vehicle.”

“Officer Thomas never said sorry,” Ellis wrote. “Never said it was an accident, never said that he called for help or was going to call for help, never asked if Ava was ok, and never asked if he could check on Ava.”

ADVERTISEMENT

The girl would subsequently need surgery, and Ellis said doctors have told her she could walk with a limp for the rest of her life. Authorities are reportedly investigating the incident, while also expressing gratefulness that the child is recovering from her injuries.

Watch Inside Edition’s report below.

ADVERTISEMENT

[h/t The Free Thought Project]