A 10-year-old boy who was one of about 20 people shot at the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade showed off a gruesome gunshot wound that punctured his lung. At first he thought it was the pain of being stepped on, but for the first time he realized it was pain. When he returned to the house there were bullet holes.
Samuel Arellano, a big Patrick Mahomes fan, said he was enjoying Wednesday’s festivities with his grandfather, aunt and uncle until the celebration turned into a nightmare.
“When I heard the gunshots, I hid” Boy told The Independent. “I fell to the ground and hid behind a trash can. Everyone ran, lost their shoes, lost their clothes.”
Samuel said his instincts came from active shooter training at school.
“They told me what to do: Hunker down, hide, don’t run.” he told KSHB.
But just before his group and several others took shelter under a trailer, they felt something attack them during the chaos, according to The Independent.
At one point, Samuel’s mother, Abby, received a phone call from his grandfather, who told him that he had not been attacked and thought the boy had just been trampled during the chaos.
When Abby went to pick up her family, she noticed that Samuel was clutching his ribs and was in pain.
“It felt like I was being stabbed,” the boy told KSHB. “My future may have been just inches away.”
It wasn’t until I got home that I made the horrifying discovery that he had been shot — when I lifted up his red Chiefs jersey and noticed a gaping hole in his armpit.
“He kept saying he had been hit, but at the same time, I feel like he didn’t believe it either… in that shock,” said his aunt, Eunice Salas, 25. he told The Independent.
“Everyone was trying to comfort him, but at the same time he was calm,” she added. “We also feel it was a miracle because he wasn’t bleeding. He had a wound, but there was no blood or anything on his body.
The boy was rushed to Mercy Children’s Hospital, where doctors “removed part of the bullet” and told the family the wound was inches from his lung, his aunt told The Independent.
“They said they thank God the bullet didn’t penetrate enough to cause serious injury.” [further] It caused damage,” Salas said.
Samuel said he felt “kind of pissed off” about being shot and that the gun violence ruined a “great experience.”
Salas said the family decided to speak out to raise awareness.
“I feel like obviously a lot of people sympathize with us, and there’s a lot of people out there right now who say, ‘It’s just a gunfight.’ No, no, this was tragic. ‘And I feel like people need to know that,’ she told The Independent.
Abby also expressed her condolences to the family of radio DJ Lisa López Galván, 44, who was killed in the shooting.
“We are devastated by the violence that occurred yesterday. It was supposed to be a day of celebration and unity for our city,” she told the outlet in Spanish. “We pray for the repose of the souls of the families of those affected.”
“Looking at the (bullet) holes just gives me flashbacks,” Samuel told KSHB.
But his mother said she was grateful he made it out alive.
“I thank God because God gave my son a second chance at life,” she said. “It was a long night and I couldn’t sleep, but I thank God he was with us.”
Of the 22 people hospitalized after the shooting, half were between the ages of 5 and 16.
The incident escalated into violence due to a personal dispute, and police detained three people who may have been at fault, authorities said Thursday.
