A Texas mother was left with a bullet in her head after being struck by a stray bullet from a celebratory gun at a New Year's Eve party, according to reports.
Sabina Barajas, 54, had just finished recording a video of her daughter performing karaoke at her north Houston home Sunday night when she felt pain in her head and realized she was bleeding.
Esmerelda de Leon, daughter of Barajas, told KTRK station She said she knew something was wrong when her brother told others in the house to turn off the music. Then she saw her mother pressing her hand on the right side of her head.
“She was like, 'Something hit me!'” Something hit me! ” de Leon quoted her mother as saying.
Emergency crews called to the home initially thought Barajas had been hit by a piece of fireworks.
However, a subsequent CT scan of the woman's head revealed that the bullet had lodged in her skull.
Barajas was told by doctors that pulling the projectile could cause an infection.
“I just want to thank God that I'm okay,” the woman said in Spanish as she sat next to her daughter.
Houston police say seven people have been arrested across Houston for firing a gun into the air over the holiday weekend.
Two of the suspects, 21-year-old Ilya Sosa and 18-year-old Junior Lezama, were arrested by police for the shooting near Barajas' home, but police did not have any bullets for ballistics testing. Not yet. It was still lodged in the victim's skull.
So far, Sosa and Lezama have not been formally implicated in the shooting of the woman.
But De Leon had a message for the person responsible for her mother's injuries.
“I want them to know what they've done and I want them to feel what they're making us feel,” de Leon said.
