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Berkeley Arrow Shooter Remains A Mystery; Girl Recovers At Home

BERKELEY (CBS SF) - Investigators are still trying to determine who fired an arrow that hit an 8-year-old girl in the leg outside the Lawrence Hall of Science on Tuesday.

The arrow pierced Nadine Hairston's left leg around 10:10 a.m. while she was on a school field trip at the science center, located at 1 Centennial Drive in the hills above the university campus, University of California at Berkeley police said Wednesday.

The girl was taken to a hospital, where the arrow was surgically removed.

Hairston was recovering at home in Marin County Wednesday night. She planned to return to school on Thursday.

UC Berkeley police Lt. Marc DeCoulode said police do not have any suspects in the case and it is not yet clear whether the person who shot the arrow was aiming for the girl.

DeCoulode said UC Berkeley has an archery group, but the spot where they practice is on the other side of campus and "nowhere near this area."

Arrow
An arrow at the scene of Tuesday's shooting. (CBS)

Rehan Alam, club president of CalArchery, said the group's faculty adviser has confirmed that the arrow that hit the girl was fired from a crossbow—a weapon not allowed by the club.

He said crossbows are much more powerful than the bows used by the club.

Police investigators are trying to reconstruct the arrow's trajectory but have not identified any suspects in the case, DeCoulode said.

Field trip chaperone Geoff Vassallo said the girl was hit while she was playing on a large sculpture of a whale in a museum courtyard.

Vassallo, a recreational archer and hunter from the Yosemite area, was at the museum with his son's class, and said he did not know the injured girl.

He said the girl cried a little as she waited for an ambulance but said, "She was a pretty brave little girl."

Vassallo said it appeared the arrow came from below the courtyard, and that he hopes it was just an accident rather than someone acting maliciously.

He said that after the girl was struck, he scanned the area to see if anyone was running away, but didn't see anyone. The other students visiting the museum were ushered inside to make sure no one else was hit.

Anyone who might have information about the case is asked to call UC Berkeley police at (510) 642-6760 or dispatch at (510) 642-3333.

(Copyright 2013 by CBS San Francisco and Bay City News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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