Girl shot in leg with arrow outside Lawrence Hall of Science

March 27, 2013 12:15:33 AM PDT
An 8-year-old girl remains in the hospital Tuesday evening after being shot in the leg with an arrow while playing outside the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley. She was with classmates on a field trip from Marin County. Police are trying to figure out where the arrow came from.

Geoff Vassallo was chaperoning a group of fifth graders from Oakdale on a field trip when he saw that a young girl from another school had been struck by an arrow in the leg.

"Somebody just yelled, 'This little girl's been shot with an arrow,'" Vassallo said. "Regular arrow, about 28 inches and it went all the way through. In one side, out the other, but it stayed stuck in her leg."

The girl had been climbing on the life-size whale statue in front of UC Berkeley's Lawrence Hall of Science. Police believe the arrow came from the field area below and to the west of where the whale is located on a plaza or from the parking lot to the north.

"It's very concerning; fortunately the girl was hit in the leg and not in the torso or the head, but yeah, it's very concerning and we're going to do everything we can to determine where it came from," UC Berkeley Police Lt. Marc DeCoulode said.

The arrow had to be surgically removed from the girl's leg. Her injuries are not considered life threatening but she is being held overnight for observation. Even so, for something like that to happen at a place where so many kids are often learning and playing was stunning.

"Insane, for somebody to do something like that with kids running around here like that," parent Stacy Koelmans said.

"Some idiot not thinking what they're doing or maybe somebody being malicious, who knows," Vassallo said. "You think why would somebody do that, why would they chance it?"

UC Berkeley police are asking anyone with information about the incident to contact them.

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