Playing hide and seek can now be added to “things that can cause a shooting” list after a 14-year-old girl was shot in the back of the head over the weekend while playing the game with her friends.
At approximately 1:30am on Sunday morning, a group of adolescents were playing hide and seek, and apparently some of them ended up hiding on the neighboring property.
Of note, there are only two houses on Jimmy Doyle Road, idyllically “nestled in the woods.” One of those homes is that of the suspect and the other belongs to “the family friends the girl was staying with at the time,” in the small town of Starks, Louisiana, which is located near the Texas state line about 35 miles north of Lake Charles.
According to a Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office press release, suspect David Doyle told detectives, “he observed shadows outside his home, at which time he went inside and retrieved his firearm.” “He then advised detectives he went back outside and observed people running away from his property, at which time he began shooting at them and unknowingly hit the girl,” stated Doyle.
Doyle used a .22 caliber single-action revolver, and the bullet ended up in the back of the 14-year-old girl’s head. Fortunately, she was taken to the hospital and treated for “non-life threatening injuries.”
Although Louisiana does have a “stand your ground” law on the books, which “allows a person to use reasonable or defensive force against an aggressor as protection from bodily harm or death,” four elements must be proved to justify this use: “the attack must be unprovoked; there must be an imminent injury or death; there must be a reasonable degree of force used; [and]…there must be a reasonable fear of injury.”
When authorities arrived on the scene, “Doyle was arrested and booked into the Calcasieu Correctional Center and charged with aggravated battery; 4 counts of aggravated assault with a firearm; and illegal discharge of a firearm,” per the Sheriff’s office.
Doyle does remain in custody with a $300,000 bond still pending, and a jail staffer has stated that a public defender was assigned to his case.
On Wednesday in a Facebook message, the girl’s mother said, “We are just thankful she is alive and doing good,” adding, “She is very lucky. We are dealing with it day by day.”