Ryan Archer Mobile Alabama man arrested after wayward stray arrow strikes 3 year old girl in the chest at Silverhill graduation party. Man had been drinking.
A 3 year old Alabama girl is lucky to still be alive after she was struck in the chest by a wayward arrow shot during a graduation party air at a Baldwin County event.
Silverhill Police Chief Kenny Hempfleng said that Ryan Archer, 35, of Mobile had been arrested and charged with second-degree assault in the incident, WKRG reported.
Police said the little girl, whose identity has not been released, was playing with other children on an inflatable waterslide installed for the party in a Silverhill backyard. Nearby, some neighbors were using bows and arrows.
Hempfleng said Archer, who had been drinking, fired an arrow at a target that ricocheted off a hard surface and sailed over a fence into the yard where the party was being held, striking the toddler in the left arm and into her chest.
She was flown to University Hospital in Mobile for treatment but has since been released and is recuperating at home, WEAR reported.
Reckless behavior
Neighbors said they were stunned by the incident.
‘I’m worried about my neighbors’ kids. I have small children myself, and it’s just a little nerve-racking,’ neighbor Erin Johnson told WKRG. ‘I think everyone just needs to be more aware of what they’re doing. We have a lot of kids in this neighborhood, riding bikes, and everything.’
Archer was booked into the Baldwin County Jail Sunday morning and released on $5,000 bail early Sunday evening, jail records show.
Under Alabama law, a person can be charged with second degree assault when he or she ‘recklessly causes serious physical injury to another person by means of a deadly weapon or a dangerous instrument.’
Police say the child’s survival was a miracle and that the shot would have been fatal had it been just a few centimeters higher.
