9-year-old shoots and kills younger sister with rifle, AZ cops say. Dad arrested
A 9-year-old boy shot and killed his 5-year-old sister with his dad’s AR-style rifle, Arizona police said.
Authorities responded to a psychiatric center at 9:10 p.m. June 3, the Phoenix Police Department said in a probable cause statement and news release.
The boy found the rifle and fired it at his sister, hitting her in the torso, police said.
Their dad told police he was outside the home when he heard “a loud bang,” police said in the report.
He went into the home and found his daughter wounded, police said.
The man told authorities he put his rifle on a top shelf in his son’s room, police said.
He then took his daughter and his girlfriend to the psychiatric center because he saw an ambulance there, police said.
The girl was taken to a hospital where she died, police said.
Other children were at the home, so the man went back to find the gun still there, police said.
Police said they found the rifle and a handgun.
The dad has a felony conviction, so he was arrested on a charge of possession of a firearm as a prohibited person.
This story was originally published June 6, 2025 at 1:45 PM with the headline "9-year-old shoots and kills younger sister with rifle, AZ cops say. Dad arrested."
