There have been at least 12 people "accidentally" shot and killed in Arizona this year.
Just this week, a Pinal County man tried to "scare" his girlfriend by pointing a gun at her and pulling the trigger. There was a bullet in that gun, and the Pinal County Sheriff's Office says 20-year-old Ramiro Delcid accidentally shot his girlfriend right in the chest, killing her. See the details on each of the 12 shootings below.
See also:
-Drunk-Driving Fatality Rate Going Up in Arizona
-Arizona One of Few States Where More People Die From Gunshots Than Car Crashes
State health department statistics show that around 12 shooting deaths in a year isn't extraordinary -- it's certainly a lot fewer than the 26 in 2002.
2013 "accidental" shooting deaths:
13.) Manuel Ortiz
This one isn't included in the total count, since it took place on New Year's Eve, 2012. According to Phoenix police, Ortiz's sister, 19-year-old Savannah Ramirez, accidentally shot and killed Ortiz while they were posing for photos together, with a gun to Ortiz's head.
12.) Unidentified Glendale Man
Glendale police say Joe Colter, a 20-year-old Glendale resident, admitted he and a friend were joking around when he unintentionally shot and killed the friend, who was not named. Colter had purchased the gun from an online classifieds website.
11.) Justin Stanfield Thomas
Thomas, an Army veteran, was visiting a friend in Prescott Valley, when his 4-year-old son found the gun in the man's apartment, and shot his father, killing him. Police say the man who lived at the apartment apparently wasn't expecting Thomas to come over, which was why the gun was out.
10.) 11-Year-Old Joan Plumb
Plumb was at home with her friends in Casa Grande when she was shot by one of those friends, who had picked up a rifle that belonged to Plumb's older brother.
9.) Nathen Noyes
Noyes' wife had apparently been handling the gun inside their Mesa home when it discharged, striking and killing Noyes, who was 60 years old.
8.) 17-year-Old Raymond Berryman
Berryman was killed after he and his friends allegedly burglarized a home, and stole a gun from that home. Ladajianna Mosely, who was 15 at the time, was allegedly playing around with the gun after the burglary, and fatally shot Berryman. She's facing a murder charge, as an adult.
7.) Francisco Pacheco-Lozania
Pacheco was killed in Seligman, while hunting prairie dogs with his 12-year-old son. Pacheco apparently walked in front of his son right as he pulled the trigger, and was shot in the head. He died later that day.
6.) Amanda Encinas
Encinas' boyfriend, 23-year-old Matthew Walsh, was showing off his new gun when it discharged, striking Encinas in the hip. The bullet hit an artery, and it killed her. Walsh faces a manslaughter charge.
5.) 3-Year-Old Darrien Nez
Darrien shot himself in the face after finding his 35-year-old grandmother's gun. The boy found it in a backpack -- the same backpack where police found grandma's meth pipe. The grandmother, Rachel Spry, faces several charges.
4.) 13-Year-Old Brady Baker
Brady, from Wickenburg, was shot by a friend in what appears to be an accident. The 13-year-old shooter got the gun from his father, who thought he should have the gun to protect himself.
3.) Gary Wingate
Wingate, of Prescott Valley, was accidentally shot and killed by his wife last month. Wingate asked his wife for his shotgun, and although she didn't like handling firearms, she did it, and the gun discharged, striking her husband.
2.) Amanda Mosley
Amanda Mosley was being hugged by her 18-year-old boyfriend at a home near 86th Avenue and Camelback Road on October 1, but the hug was uncomfortable to her since her boyfriend had a handgun in his waist. Police Mosley's boyfriend -- whose name wasn't released -- pulled the gun out of his waistband, and it discharged, hitting Mosley. She died in a Phoenix hospital.
1.) Red Rock woman
Delcid was sitting in his company work truck with his girlfriend Monday evening at a feed-supply company in Red Rock, which is between Eloy and Marana along Interstate 10. He'd unloaded his .38-caliber pistol and planned to pull the trigger just to "scare" his girlfriend, but there still was one bullet in there. His 19-year-old girlfriend, whose name wasn't released, was pronounced dead at the scene. Delcid was booked into jail on a charge of negligent homicide.
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