Two North Texas men are warning people about the dangers of shooting guns into the air to celebrate the new year after they were hit by random bullets falling from the sky.
Two North Texas men are warning people about the dangers of shooting guns into the air to celebrate the new year after they were hit by random bullets falling from the sky.
Jerry Serrano rang in the new year in his own front yard Saturday night in North Fort Worth.
"The whole yard was full with the family, you know, a bunch of us out here," he said.
But instead of fireworks, he said his neighborhood was full of another loud sound.
"You could hear guns – machine guns, handguns, I mean everything," the 36-year-old factory worker said. "They were going off, 'pow, pow,' like non-stop."
Without warning, a 38-caliber bullet hit him in the shoulder.
"I felt something hit me in the back of my back," Serrano said.
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About the same time in Dallas, Adam Murnan was home in bed.
"I decided to stay in and make it a good new year," he said. "I woke up and I didn't know what had happened. I was in pain."
A lot of pain.
"I was holding my leg, screaming," he said.
He and his friends noticed a bullet hole in the window.
"That's when I figured I had been shot," he said.
His leg is broken. It could take eight weeks to recover from the gunshot wound.
"(The police) said it was probably a random bullet – people shooting their guns off for New Year's," he said. "So yeah, not much to do for it, I guess."
The two men share similar stories – and now the same message.
"If a bullet is going to go up, it has to go down. I mean, it's just common logic. It doesn't make sense to shoot a gun in the air. Someone can get hurt," Murnan said.
"I was one of those who said, 'Nah, it's not going to happen.' It happens. Like they say, what goes up must come down," Serrano said.
Police have no suspects in either case.
Dallas police reported a total of 711 calls about random gunfire between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. on the night of New Year's Eve.
And in South Texas a state lawmaker was struck in the head by what he believes was celebratory gunfire.
Rep. Armando Martinez, D-Weslaco, said he was in a home near the town of Weslaco when he felt like he had been struck in the head by a sledgehammer. It was discovered that he'd been shot and he later underwent surgery to have the bullet removed.
