KINGMAN – Three Golden Valley residents have been arrested after concocting a false account of how an eight-month-old baby was critically wounded by pellet gun fire. The Mohave County Sheriff’s office investigation began Tuesday night when the child was being treated for suspicious injuries at Kingman Regional Medical Center.
Detectives traveled to Las Vegas where the child had been flown for treatment. Sheriff’s office spokeswoman Anita Mortensen said it was determined that the girl had been shot at least twice by a projectile that was consistent with a b.b. or pellet.
“One of the projectiles was to the child’s arm and was a grazing wound,” Mortensen said. “The second projectile struck the child in the back of her head, fractured her skull and lodged in her cranial cavity.”
Mortensen said the girl’s mother, Marticella Lopez-Rodriguez, 34, told investigators that she had been gathering firewood when an unknown person began firing at she and her daughter and friends. She said detectives also questioned Zion Zachary Kauffman, 33, and Savannah Joy Cushman, 27.
“The investigation revealed that Zion had shot 10 to 30 b.b.’s at a covey of quail that were in the area of the child, who was sitting in a car seat that had been placed on the ground in the area of her mother as she was collecting firewood,” Mortensen said. “The trio administered first aid, however waited several hours before transporting the child to the hospital.”
Mortensen said Lopez-Rodriguez admitted that she, Zion and Cushman fabricated the phantom shooter story. Lopez-Rodriguez is jailed in Las Vegas awaiting extradition, while Zion and Cushman were booked into the Mohave County Adult Detention Center.
Da ve Hawkins
