Authorities had been searching for the girl by helicopter when her relatives told the sheriff’s office she had been found “all alone, in the desert” with a loaded, cocked.45-caliber handgun, the release said.
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The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office said Paul Armand Rater left his Buckeye home Sunday night with his 5-year-old granddaughter.
The girl was holding the handgun when the search party located her.
Rater’s wife, Terri, told deputies that Rater seemed to be “pissed off” when he called her from the store and demanded to be picked up.
An Arizona grandfather apparently decided the comforts of booze and a burger were best enjoyed alone when he was in charge of his granddaughter Sunday evening, a local official said.
“While he was looking for help, he came across multiple people and never thought he should call 911”, deputies allege in a probable-cause statement. He told them to look for his granddaughter.
“She was given the gun and told to shoot any bad guys”, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio told Reuters by telephone.
Rater was found about 10 miles away at a bar having drinks and a cheeseburger. “He took me by a few bushes, gave me a gun and left me”.
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Rater was arrested on two counts of child abuse and one count of child endangerment, according to the release.
