9-year-old girl shot in Victor Valley mall shooting released from hospital
Ava, the nine-year-old girl struck by three bullets in a shooting that occurred at the Victor Valley Mall on Tuesday was released from the hospital Thursday.
"Thank you, everybody," she said. "I'm happy that I'm home."
She was standing in line with her family to see the Easter Bunny when one of the co-owners of Sole Addicts opened fire on a group of shoplifters as they fled from the store.
"Nobody in their right state of mind would run out in a crowded mall and pop shots," said Ava's father Charles Chruniak, Jr.
All three of the bullets struck her in the arm and after two nights in the hospital, Ava was released from care.
"I want to know why they shot me," she said. "Why was I the one who got shot?"
Her family detailed that two of the three wounds were through-and-through bullet wounds, but the third bullet remained lodged in her arm, since it shattered her bone.
Doctors are unable to repair the bone, so she will have to wear a brace in the meantime so it can fix itself naturally.
Ava will have to return to the hospital for another surgery in about a week in hopes of repairing some nerve damage she suffered in the incident.
While the road to recovery may be long, her family is just happy she's home safely.
"She's a trooper," Ava's grandmother said while speaking with CBS reporters Wednesday.
"I just want her to be a normal kid," said Chruniak. "I want her to have that normal life."
The man who fired the bullets, Marqel Cockrell, was arrested hours later in Las Vegas, after fleeing from the scene of the shooting.
"I will never forgive him," she said. "What he did to me was not ok."
