Girl shot with pellet gun
Police charge two boys, 15, with assault with a weapon

by P.J. Harston
Northern News Services

NNSL (June 25/97) - A 12-year-old girl shot with a pellet gun while walking home Saturday night needed surgery to remove the pellet from her arm.

RCMP quickly took two 15-year-old boys into custody about in connection with the shooting. They have been charged with assault with a weapon.

"The girl was taken to hospital and the pellet was removed. Surgery was required due to the placement of the pellet in the girl's arm," police said in a news release.

Samantha Basil and her cousin Amy Basil were walking along the 5600 block of Franklin Avenue just after 8 p.m. when Samantha's arm "felt funny."

"I didn't know what happened at first," said Samantha. She added that she'd never been shot before. "I was just walking home from downtown."

Blood began streaming out of a small hole on her left forearm.

Don Netskar and his buddies where shooting the breeze on the first summer night of the year at a Franklin Avenue residence when the Basils approached them for help.

"We had heard a few cracks over the last little while, but we couldn't really figure out what it was," said Netskar.

"When she (Basil) came and showed us her arm, we figured it out," he said.

Netskar's buddy, Frank Dwyer, applied first aid to Samantha's wound and another man called police.

Const. Ken Davidson interviewed Netskar, Dwyer and the Basil cousins at the scene. He then crossed the four-lane street and climbed the slope to a New Garden townhome.

He emerged about 15 minutes later with two young boys and what appeared to be a pellet or BB gun.

The gun and the boys were placed in Davidson's police car and taken to the detachment. The boys are scheduled to appear in youth court July 28.

Another police vehicle took the Basils to Stanton Regional Hospital, where medical staff removed the pellet from Amy's arm.