AHWATUKEE, Ariz. - A night out for ice cream had a painful ending for an Ahwatukee boy who was shot in the head by pellets from a BB gun, Phoenix police said.
The incident happened Saturday at Andy’s Frozen Custard off 48th Street and Warner Road. The shop’s owner, Jacob Ruedas, said a line of people was waiting for a cool treat when the pellets began flying.
“I was looking out front to see all of the customers and then I hear the pop of a CO2 tank and the glass shatter,” Ruedas said. “I actually saw it and I thought OK this is not normal.”
Katy Proctor’s 12-year-old son was hit in the head by one of the pellets, which were powerful enough to shatter one of the windows at Andy’s Frozen Custard.
“The first thing he told me that I remember is that he said 'I felt like I had died,'” Proctor said. “And to hear that from your 12-year-old is just heartbreaking.”
Investigators say the shots are believed to have come from a black or dark-colored passenger car.
According to detectives, a call was received describing a similar vehicle that struck a bicyclist off 44th Street and Knox Road, less than a mile away.
“We live in a great community out here and I really believe that sometimes great people make bad choices and I’m hopeful parents will talk to their kids about these issues,” Proctor said.
Repairs have begun on the shattered glass at Andy’s Frozen Custard, and while Proctor said her son is OK physically, emotionally, she said, it’s going to be a "time-will-tell thing.”
“He still talks about it and it’s going to be something that weighs on his mind for a while,” she said.