UPDATE, 2pm Thursday: Police have announced that the Richmond Medical Examiner’s Office has ruled the death an accident. The investigation into the shooting continues.
Those who would like to give to support the family or to charity in Maggie’s name can visit this online donation site.
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UPDATE, 8pm: According to a report from the Charlottesville Newsplex, the 10-year-old girl shot and killed Tuesday was Maggie Hollifield, daughter of pastor Paul Hollifield, who leads Commonwealth Christian Community church. Newsplex reports the church issued a letter identifying the girl and saying the shooting was accidental. Police have yet to confirm the victim’s identity, and have not released information on the age or identity of the juvenile male shooter or whether the two were related.
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Albemarle County police are continuing their investigation of the fatal shooting of a 10-year-old girl by a juvenile boy in Crozet Tuesday morning.
“They’re still putting together the pieces,” Albemarle County police spokeswoman Carter Johnson said of law enforcement, who set up a staging center at the Open Door Ministry Church near the scene of the shooting, which took place just after 10am on the 1400 block of McAllister Street off St. George Avenue not far from Crozet’s downtown.
Police have shared little about the incident, beyond confirming that the 10-year-old was shot and died at the scene, and that a male juvenile “was involved and discharged the gun.” No one is in custody, Johnson said.
Neighbors told Newsplex reporters that the shooting happened at the home of the pastor of Commonwealth Christian Community, which is affiliated with the Open Door Ministry. According to an April story in the Crozet Gazette, the church, formerly called Victory Hill, renamed itself this past Easter when Paul Hollifield was appointed as its pastor. That story says Hollifield and his wife moved to Crozet with their four children, all home-schooled, last September.
A Daily Progress report from the scene yesterday described a neighborhood in shock, with family and other mourners coming and going from the Open Door Ministry throughout the day.