14-Year-Old Girl Shot While Playing Hide And Seek In Louisiana

LAKE CHARLES, LA — A 14-year-old girl was shot in the back of the head while playing hide and seek in Starks, Louisiana Sunday morning, the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office said Monday in a news release.

The girl was taken to a hospital with injuries that are not life-threatening, according to the sheriff's office.

Several children were playing hide and seek in the area and were hiding on the neighbor’s property when the shooting occurred, the sheriff's office said.

The property owner, 58-year-old David V. Doyle, told detectives he went inside and brought out his gun when he saw shadows outside his home, according to the sheriff's office. When he went back outside and saw people running away from his property, he began shooting at them and hit the girl, authorities said.

Doyle was arrested and booked into the Calcasieu Correctional Center and charged with aggravated battery, four counts of aggravated assault with a firearm, and illegal discharge of a firearm, the sheriff's office said. His bond is still pending.

The shooting is the latest in a string of similar incidents of gun violence.

Last month, a North Carolina man was arrested after being accused of shooting a 6-year-old girl and her parents after she apparently went to retrieve a basketball in his yard, according to police in Gaston County. The accused, 24-year-old Robert Louis Singletary, was charged with four counts of attempted first-degree murder.

Also in April, a 20-year-old woman was killed in a shooting in upstate New York while traveling with friends and mistakenly turning into the wrong driveway, according to local authorities and a GoFundMe campaign for her family. The accused, 65-year-old Kevin Monahan, is facing a charge of second-degree murder, authorities said.

In yet another April incident, a Black teen named Ralph Yarl was shot twice after going to the wrong home in Kansas City, Missouri, to pick up his younger brothers, according to The Associated Press. The accused, 84-year-old Andrew Lester, is facing charges including first-degree assault.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.