An American, thinking he was targeting someone breaking into his suburban Ohio lodge, shot dead his own 16-year-old daughter, according to local police and media.
According to the Columbus police report, although accidental, this is the 202nd homicide of 2021 in the city of about two million people.
At around 4.30 a.m. on Wednesday, a woman called for help: Janae Hairston, her 16-year-old daughter, was seriously injured by gunshot in the garage.
The father, who shot her by taking her for an intruder, is distraught, asks her how she is.
While waiting for the police to arrive, the two parents beg their daughter to stand up, tells the Columbus Dispatch, a local daily which had access to a recording of the call.
But nothing helps, says the police report: transported to a hospital, she died an hour later.
44,000 gun deaths in the United States
"In any case, if you are the one who is going to pull the trigger, it is really important to know who your target is," thought it useful to specify a police official at the local channel ABC6 Columbus, the capital of the 'State of Ohio, in the north of the country.
"We are saddened by this tragic loss and we will make every effort to support high school students and families," the school where Janae was studying wrote in a letter to parents quoted by local press.
Less than two kilometers away, a shootout killed three people aged 6, 9 and 22 on December 7.
The two young children attended the same school as the teenager.
Gun violence has increased since the start of the pandemic in the United States, where the carrying of weapons is constitutionally protected.
They have killed more than 44,000 people since the start of the year, including 1,517 minors, including suicides, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
