OREM, Utah—Relatives of a 6-year-old Utah girl who died after her father accidentally struck her with a golf ball are remembering her as a loving, playful child.
Aria Hill’s uncle David Smith described her as a happy child who greeted strangers and enjoyed spending time with her parents. Smith said she went golfing often with her father and that it was one of their favorite activities to do together.
Police say the ball struck Hill in the back of the head on Monday morning, while the father and daughter were out golfing with Hill’s uncle, Brayden Hill, at Sleepy Ridge Golf Course in Orem about 40 miles south of Salt Lake City.
“A complete, fluke accident—you couldn’t repeat it if you tried,” Smith told KUTV in Salt Lake City. “She just happened to be in the exact wrong place, just directly across from him, when it happened.”
The ball hit the base of her neck. Lt. Trent Colledge of the Orem Police Department says she was flown to a hospital in Salt Lake City in critical condition and later died from her injuries.
Smith said Hill loved to do what the family called “big girl things” with her mother Talysa like dressing up, experimenting with makeup, and helping take care of her two younger brothers.
“She loved everyone so freely and effortlessly, the best way she knew how,” he added.
Steven Marett, the head golf professional at the course, told the Deseret News that he has seen people occasionally get hit by balls but he had never heard of guests getting seriously injured or killed.
“This is absolutely unimaginable, and it’s been devastating,” Marett said.
Colledge said police are not planning to pursue charges because it appears to have been a tragic accident.
Hill’s family has planned her funeral services for July 20 at a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints meetinghouse near Eagle Mountain in northern Utah.
Previous Incidents
Fan Celebrating Birthday Was Killed by Foul Ball
A woman died as a result of being struck in the head by a foul ball at a baseball game in August of last year, according to a coroner’s report obtained by ESPN.
Linda Goldbloom was celebrating her 79th birthday and 59th wedding anniversary at Dodger Stadium when a ball hit by a San Diego Padres player flew over the protective netting and struck the woman in the head.
“Ushers came down and asked if she was all right, and she said no, then EMT came and rushed her to the hospital—she threw up in the ambulance,” Goldbloom’s daughter, Jana Brody, told ESPN.
OTL: Coroner says Dodger fan killed by foul ball https://t.co/i65wtjTQFJ pic.twitter.com/R6QAxcDHcO
— ESPNLosAngeles (@ESPNLosAngeles) February 5, 2019
The mother of three and grandmother of seven was rushed to the hospital for treatment. For three days, Goldbloom was unresponsive, Brody said, except when a nurse saw her move one finger one time upon being asked if her name was Linda. Her eyes never opened at the hospital, and a ventilator kept her breathing.
Four days later, at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, she died.
Tragedy at Sports Events
While incidents involving loss of life on the part of spectators at sports events are relatively rare, there have been notable cases of fan deaths.
A shocking sports death occurred on July 7, 2011, when a man attending a baseball game with his 6-year-old son fell 20 feet headfirst onto the concrete while trying to catch a baseball tossed to him by one of the players.
Shannon Stone, a 39-year-old firefighter from Brownwood, Texas, was still conscious after the fall and told paramedics his son was still in the stands, according to Business Insider. Stone was rushed to the hospital and later pronounced dead.
There have also been notable instances of mass casualties.
About 50 people were killed at a Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, soccer match in 2005, in what the Institute for Justice and Democracy (IJDH) in Haiti called a “massacre.”
The aim of the Play for Peace soccer game, sponsored by USAID, was to steer young people away from gang activity, but the peaceful match turned bloody when police and machete-wielding accomplices entered the stadium and began to target suspected criminals.
“Some people were shot and killed by police,” according to IJDH, citing witnesses and family members, “while others were hacked to pieces by the machete-wielding civilians.”
Anne Sosin, a human rights observer at the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, said: “These killings set a dangerous precedent. How can you explain police accompanied by individuals armed with machetes massacring spectators at a soccer match with UN troops standing by literally across the street?”
NTD News reporter Tiffany Meier, and Epoch Times Tom Ozimek contributed to this article.
