Girl Wounded at Disneyland Is Doing Well

An 8-year-old girl was reported to be in good condition Monday after being struck at Disneyland by a bullet that had apparently been fired from a nearby neighborhood.

Nayeli Diana Placentia is expected to be hospitalized several days for a wound to her lower back. The Downey girl was hit by a large-caliber round on Sunday while riding the Disneyland Railroad in the Fantasyland section of the theme park.

“She’s alert and awake. She’s doing real, real good,” said Fran Tardiff, a spokeswoman for UCI Medical Center in Orange. “She’s a good, quiet little girl and very cooperative, very pleasant.” Anaheim police said Monday that they believe that the bullet was fired from outside the park, apparently into the air.

Anaheim Police Lt. Marc Hedgpeth said the angle of the bullet’s trajectory shows that it originated from the north to northwest, where Ball Road and West Street are located. But, he added, investigators may never know exactly where it came from because there is a heavy concentration of homes, hotels, motels and other businesses in that direction.

Residents and police said Monday that it is not uncommon in that area for guns to be fired into the air, particularly on holidays.

“It sounds like firecrackers sometimes,” said 15-year-old Efren Meraz, who lives on Michelle Drive behind the Disneyland Hotel. “There’s a lot of gangs here, and they shoot guns in the air and in the ground.”

Hedgpeth said a bullet can travel upward as far as a mile, causing injury or even death when it plummets to the ground.

Disneyland spokesman Bob Roth said the train carrying Nayeli, her parents, Jose and Carmen Ramirez, and some other family members was pulling to a stop at Videopolis station shortly after 6 p.m. Sunday when she complained of a pain in her back. The station--one of four along the rail route--is near the “It’s a Small World” attraction on the northern perimeter of the 80-acre park. The family had been riding in the last row of the last passenger car, Roth said.

After the girl’s father told the ride operator that his daughter was complaining of pain in her back, a Disneyland nurse was summoned. The nurse noticed Nayeli Placentia was bleeding, Roth said, and park officials rushed her to Western Medical Center in Anaheim.

Doctors discovered Nayeli had been struck by a bullet, and she was transferred immediately to the trauma center at UCI Medical Center. The bullet was extracted during a 90-minute surgery.

The Disneyland Railroad was temporarily closed and the passenger car inspected. It was then that officials discovered a bullet hole in the red and white canvas roof.

The ride reopened the same evening, and on Monday the canopy was replaced, Roth said. Park officials questioned passengers on the train, but none reported hearing a gunshot.

Roth said Disneyland has offered to assist in Nayeli’s medical bills.

“Obviously, we feel bad about their experience,” Roth said. “It was a totally freakish accident. It (the bullet) could have landed anywhere. The poor child just happened to be there.” Roth said this was the first incident involving a park patron being struck by a stray bullet, although there have been two homicides in Disneyland’s 35-year history. A man was fatally stabbed during an argument in 1984, and another man was shot to death in the Disneyland parking lot in 1987.

Staff writer Michael Ashcraft contributed to this report.