Girl’s Condition Stable After Being Shot Through Stomach

RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA — A 13-year-old girl was in stable condition at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo on Saturday following surgery required after her 14-year-old brother accidentally shot her through the stomach, authorities said. She is expected to survive.

“She is a very lucky young lady,” said Lt. William Francis of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

Francis said the girl was shot once in the stomach at close range in her Rancho Santa Margarita home after her brother pulled the trigger on a gun he thought was unloaded.

The 14-year-old boy had gone into an upstairs closet to get an unloaded .40-caliber Glock semiautomatic handgun that was owned by his mother’s fiance, Francis said. Before the shooting, the boy had been seen outside the home in the 200 block of Via Serena, pointing the gun at passersby, he said.

The boy came back inside the house, Francis said, and continued to play with the gun. The 14-year-old found a loaded clip and put it in the gun.

“One of his friends pulled the clip out and said ‘It won’t fire now,’ ” Francis said.

But a bullet was still lodged in a chamber, he said. When the boy’s sister told him to put the gun away or their mother would be angry, Francis said, the boy reacted by pointing the gun at her and shooting.

Francis said the boy was arrested for discharging a firearm in a grossly negligent manner that could result in injury or death. He was booked into Orange County Juvenile Hall.