Bullet Missed Child’s Vital Organs

The Lake Forest toddler shot in the chest by her father survived because the bullet miraculously missed all vital organs, police and medical experts said Tuesday.

“She’s very, very lucky,” spokesman Jim Amormino of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department said of the 22-month-old girl. “The bullet went straight through like a laser.”

Alycia Aquities Renae Turner remained in critical condition Tuesday at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo, but officials said the child was alert and talking. Orange County social services personnel will be responsible for her care until guardianship is determined in court, police said.

Alycia was the only survivor of Monday’s incident, in which her father, Thomas Lewis Turner, fatally shot his wife, his teenage nephew and himself.

Authorities said the toddler was shot at close range with a .357-caliber pistol but was not hit in the heart or lungs.

Dr. Demetrios Demetriades, director of trauma services in surgical intensive care at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, said the bullet “most likely hit the periphery of the lung, which is not a lethal situation. It essentially causes bleeding or leaking of air in the chest cavity but doesn’t do any serious damage.”

If a person is shot in the heart with a low-velocity bullet like those associated with handguns, he said, the survival rate is only 7% to 10%. But when the bullet misses the heart and major blood vessels, the survival rate jumps to better than 90%, he said. Barring such complications as infections, a victim can recover in as little as two or three days, Demetriades said.

“It’s just pure luck,” he said of the toddler’s injury, “but it explains the good outcome.”

An autopsy completed Tuesday showed that the child’s mother, 39-year-old Acedra Renee Turner, was shot once in the head. The girl’s cousin Broderick Turner, 15, was shot twice in the chest.

Police said Monday’s shootings at the family’s two-bedroom home at Cedar Glen Apartments appeared to have been carefully planned. Thomas Turner, 40, shot his wife in their bedroom as she prepared for work. He then walked to his nephew’s bedroom and shot the teen. He returned to the bedroom and shot his daughter, who was lying in her crib, then shot himself in the chest, authorities said.

Turner, a credit union manager and devout churchgoer, may have been distraught over marital problems, authorities said.

At El Toro High School, where Broderick Turner was a popular freshman football player, Principal Jack Clement announced the tragedy on the public-address system before classes began Tuesday. “One of our classmates and a member of our family just left us in a tragic situation,” he said. “Let’s take a moment and reflect on his life and what he meant to us.”

Later he said, “We’re all trying to absorb this. We’re not used to seeing his desk empty. We’re going to miss him.”

Many of Broderick’s classmates had already heard the news. In his fourth-period Spanish class, white roses lay on the wooden desk where he sat.

Jeff West, a freshman who was on the football team with Broderick and sat next to him English class, said: “He didn’t try to be cool. He didn’t try to be nice. He wasn’t trying to be somebody else. He was Broderick, and everyone liked him for that.”

The teen, who was called “Bro” and “Brod,” worked hard to stay in shape, his classmate said, lifting weights even off-season.

On the campus, students hung yellow banners expressing their thoughts. One read: “Man, even though I didn’t like to admit it, you were the best wide receiver. I will love you forever.”

Another said: “You had such a good attitude and always had a smile. Just isn’t fair.”