MOHAVE COUNTY, Arizona — Three people, including the baby's mother, have been arrested after an 8-month-old infant was shot twice by a BB gun in Arizona.
The baby was airlifted to a hospital in Las Vegas after one of the pellets fractured the girl's skull.
Marticella Lopez-Rodriguez, the baby's mother, originally told deputies with the Mohave County Sheriff's Office that she and the infant were out gathering firewood Tuesday with friends when an unknown person began firing at the group with an airsoft gun.
Authorities said one of the projectiles hit the girl's arm, while the other struck her in the back of her head and lodged in the cranial cavity.
An investigation later showed that one of the members of the group, Zion Zachary Kauffman, 33, had fired up to 30 BBs at quail near the area, with two of the rounds hitting the baby.
Lopez-Rodriguez, Kauffman, and Savannah Joy Cushman, 27, administered first aid to the girl, but did not take the child to the hospital until house later. The trio also came up with a story to tell police that the infant was shot by an unknown person shooting at the group.
Kauffman and Cushman were arrested and booked on one count of aggravated assault, child abuse and hindering prosecution. Lopez-Rodriguez was arrested in Las Vegas on the same felony charges.
