Girl in Shooting Case to Be Arraigned

A 13-year-old girl accused of shooting at schoolmates in her Moorpark neighborhood will be arraigned Thursday on a charge of attempted murder, prosecutors said.

The girl probably will not be charged as an adult when charges are filed today because she is so young, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Randy Thomas, head of the district attorney’s juvenile crimes unit.

The girl hit no one when she opened fire on other teens Monday afternoon with her father’s handgun, Ventura County sheriff’s deputies said. Deputies chased her down, arrested her and had her booked into Juvenile Hall on Monday night, Det. Ernie Montagna said.

Schoolmates said the girl shot at them after they taunted her, but Montagna said detectives are still trying to learn the exact cause for the shooting.

Detectives are also trying to decide whether the girl’s father should be prosecuted on charges of leaving his semiautomatic pistol where the girl could get at it, Montagna said.

Senior Deputy Ed Tumbleson, in charge of patrol services in Moorpark, said the district attorney’s office must decide whether to charge the father with a misdemeanor violation of leaving a gun where a child can handle it without supervision. “We don’t think he was in violation at the time,” Tumbleson said. “His guns weren’t loaded, and it’s a requirement of the law that they be loaded” for a violation to occur.