What is the matter with people? This story is one of those that made my head want to whip around like I was possessed or something. Because I just cannot even imagine anyone this stupid, selfish, and...did I mention stupid and selfish? Irresponsible?
Via Raw Story:
Paul Armand Rater, 53, was booked into the Fourth Avenue Jail in downtown Phoenix on suspicion of two counts of felony child abuse and one count of felony child endangerment stemming from incident on Sunday night.
Deputies said he and the child left their home in Buckeye, about 30 miles (48 km) west of Phoenix, in a pickup truck early on Sunday afternoon and that the girl was reported missing four hours later.
She was eventually located in the desert by her mother and an off-duty firefighter. The child was holding the powerful pistol.
“She was given the gun and told to shoot any bad guys,” Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio told Reuters by telephone. “I don’t know how a five-year-old can tell a good guy from a bad guy, but that’s what she said she was told.”
Rater was later located at a store where he told deputies the vehicle had broken down and that he had left the girl under a tree in the desert because she was complaining she could not walk anymore, court records showed.
He admitted leaving the girl with his gun, “while he went for a few drinks and a cheeseburger,” the sheriff’s office said.
It must be the Arizona weather that crinkles up brains. I know nice people in Arizona, but then I read a story like this and just wonder what the fck he was thinking?
