Surprise man arrested for allegedly shooting stepdaughter with pellet gun
May 2, 2019, 4:45 AM | Updated: 1:19 pm
Isiah Jackson (Maricopa County Sheriff's Office Photo)
(Maricopa County Sheriff's Office Photo)
PHOENIX — A man was arrested in Surprise on Tuesday for allegedly shooting his teenage stepdaughter in the chest with a pellet gun because he caught her with food that she wasn’t supposed to eat.
Police said they received a call around 1:15 p.m. that a girl had been shot at a home near 136th and Watson lanes.
According to court documents, the girl told a nurse and a social worker that her stepfather, 37-year-old Isiah Jackson, shot her because he was angry with her for eating food.
The girl was taken to a hospital by helicopter, where she underwent emergency surgery and was reported to be in stable condition.
Police said Jackson was booked on one count of aggravated assault and one count of child abuse.
The girl said said Jackson told her to hold up a shooting target and threatened to shoot her with a stun gun the next time he caught her with food.
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Jackson told police that he was outside shooting birds, brought the gun inside to fix its scope and was talking to the girl about chores when the gun went off.
He told police that the shooting was unintentional but said the girl was known to steal food and eat it out of the trash.
Police said upon further investigation, they found that the girl, who has not been to school in three years, was living in “deplorable conditions ” in a bedroom where the floor was “saturated with urine.”
They said other children in the home lived in very different conditions, with “high-end furniture, decorations, clothing and toys” in their rooms.
The court records said investigators with the Arizona Department of Child Services told detectives “there is a long history with the family of child abuse” that led them to place several of the children in foster homes from 2010-2013.
The records did not specify what kind of abuse was alleged or exactly who was suspected in those earlier cases.
The girl has not been in school for at least three years and the family reportedly told authorities she had been taking online classes and did not have any friends.
After the girl was found shot, authorities placed the family’s other six children with child welfare authorities.
Bond was set at $150,000 and a preliminary hearing was scheduled for May 10.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
