Family of Arizona shooting-range instructor killed in accident files lawsuit

PHOENIX — Nearly a year after the accidental fatal shooting of a firing-range range instructor by a young girl in Arizona, his family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit.

The civil suit filed last week in Mohave County Superior Court seeks unspecified damages for Charles Vacca’s widow, three children, his mother and an ex-wife.

The lawsuit filed by Stephanie Vacca stated that the owners and operators of the Last Stop shooting range in White Hills, Arizona were negligent in her husband’s August 2014 death.

Charles Vacca, 39, was showing a 9-year-old girl how to fire an Uzi at the Mohave County facility last August when the recoil sent the weapon skyward, shooting the instructor in the head.

The suit contended the Uzi was neither a safe nor appropriate weapon to hand over to a young girl.

A police report quoted the child saying the Uzi was “too much for her.”

The girl was in Arizona on vacation with her family. Prosecutors did not file charges.

Vacca was eventually airlifted to University Medical Center in Las Vegas, where he was pronounced dead.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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