SUMMERLAND, BC — It was a lively event at yesterday’s bull-riding stampede.
But a night of fun changed in an instant.
“I felt this really big piercing pain,” says 11-year-old Calista Stafford.
“My daughter was crouched over and coming up to me and she was saying that she was shot,” adds Jean Stafford.
She was shot by mistake.
A cowgirl was aiming for some balloons with a pellet gun — it was never meant to hit a young girl.
“She’s got a hole in her right hip with a pellet that had penetrated right through to the bone and her shirt was all jammed in there as well,” describes her father.
The pellet left a small wound, but Calista says she was terrified,
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“I was shaking. My teeth were chattering and I thought I would get badly infected. I was just really scared for my life,” she explains.
She was treated on scene, but it wasn’t enough.
Her father brought her to the hospital to get it examined by the doctors and receive painkillers.
He is appalled by how organizers handled last night’s event.
He says the popular show was over capacity and there was no warning given to packed crowd.
Fortunately, they believe Calista’s wound will heal in a couple of weeks.
But in the meantime, she has to endure some pain.
“It’s really hard to sleep and walk to put pressure on it — it really hurts,” she says.
All she wants from the rodeo is an apology and she got that wish more than 12 hours later.
Global News tried reaching the organizer for comment, but they did not respond.
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