A firearms instructor has died after he was shot by a nine-year-old girl when she fired an Uzi at a shooting range in the Arizona desert.

Mohave County sheriff’s officials said 39-year-old Charles Vacca, of Lake Havasu City, Arizona, died at the hospital on Monday after he was shot at the Last Stop outdoor shooting range.

Mohave County Sheriff Jim McCabe told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that Vacca was standing next to the girl when she pulled the trigger. The gun recoiled and it went over her head.



The paper reported that the girl had successfully fired the 9mm weapon several times in “single-shot” mode before Vacca changed the setting to “fully automatic” mode.

“The guy just dropped,” McCabe said, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The sheriff said the instructor was shot at least once in the head.



Sheriff’s officials said Vacca was airlifted to the University Medical Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he died hours later.

Arizona law prohibits minors from possessing a firearm unless they are accompanied by a parent, guardian or an instructor, among other exceptions. Deputies said the 9-year-old girl was at the shooting range with her parents.



McCabe told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that no citations will be issued nor charges filed against the shooting range.

Arizona Last Stop is a roughly 30-acre property in the Mohave desert, which creates a “Desert Storm” atmosphere for shooters, their websites says.



At the range, guests can take guided tours that include a private range and a certified ex-military firearms instructor. The tours require children to be at least 8 years old and stipulate that minors under 18 must be accompanied by parent or legal guardian at all times.

At the range, shooters can choose their firearm among a range of fully automatic machine guns and specialty weapons. Their website boasts: “At our range, you can shoot FULL auto on our machine guns. Let ‘em Rip!” The range did not return requests for comment from the Guardian.