Girl Hit By Arrow Outside Museum Leaves Hospital

A girl hit by an arrow outside a California museum has been released from the hospital, but the bizarre incident still leaves some significant questions.

Yesterday during a school trip, the girl was struck by an arrow outside the Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California at Berkeley. According to local news sources, Nadine Hairston, 8, was outside playing on the trip in the Berkeley hills when she was hit.

At about 10 AM, Hairston was climbing on a whale structure, and seemingly out of nowhere, the girl was hit by an arrow from a crossbow, measuring about 20 inches. Although she sustained injuries necessitating overnight hospitalization after she was struck in the thigh, the wound wasn’t life threatening and did not involve a major artery.

Mom Alicia Hairston says that after the arrow hit Nadine, the girl seemed a bit stunned but relaxed quickly and bravely handled the frightening injury:

“She was sliding down the whale and she felt a shock in her left leg so jumped off and tried to run, but she couldn’t run … She cried a little bit and calmed down right away. Everyone said she was pretty calm for what had happened.”

The girl hit with the arrow seems to be okay after the scare — doing so well, in fact, that she returned to school to see friends after she was released Wednesday.

However, police say that they still want to learn whether the girl was hit with the arrow intentionally, or if the strange injury was an accident of some sort.

UC Berkeley Police Lt. Marc DeCoulode told local news sources that law enforcement is concerned and investigating the incident:

“It’s very concerning; fortunately the girl was hit in the leg and not in the torso or the head, but yeah, it’s very concerning and we’re going to do everything we can to determine where it came from.”

Anyone with information on the girl’s close call with the arrow has been asked to contact local law enforcement.