Shoe store co-owner ‘hit nine-year-old girl while shooting at shoplifters’

Marqel Cockrell appears at an extradition hearing at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas (Rachel Aston/Las Vegas Review-Journal/AP)

The co-owner of a Southern California shoe store who allegedly hit a nine-year-old girl while shooting at shoplifters has been charged with assault with a firearm, authorities have said.

Marquel Michael James Cockrell, 20, was scheduled for a San Bernardino County Superior Court video arraignment in Rancho Cucamonga, a prosecution press release said.