A local child is recovering after being struck by a bullet amid New Year’s celebrations.
Arlington police officers responded to a shooting call in the 200 block of Roberts Circle around 12:20 a.m. early Sunday.
When officers arrived on the scene, they found that a 12-year-old boy had been grazed by a bullet.
The boy and his family had been celebrating the New Year by playing with sparklers when Maria Ramirez said her son felt a pain at the back of his neck.
An ambulance transported the child to a nearby hospital where he was treated. By Sunday afternoon, he was back home recovering.
The incident in Arlington was not an isolated one. In fact, when the clocks struck 12, celebratory gunfire could be heard from all around North Texas.
In Fort Worth, in the 3600 block of Bright Street, another person was struck by a falling projectile at 12:15 a.m. and was taken to a hospital. The unidentified victim was treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
In Dallas, the Dallas Police Department issued a New Year’s safety warning regarding celebratory gunfire ahead of the festivities.
“Celebratory gunfire is illegal and extremely dangerous. A single bullet fired in the air can come down at speeds up to 300 feet per second. The results could be property damage, serious injuries, even death,” the statement reads.
The Dallas Express reached out to the Dallas Police Department for additional information and was told that the department had received 1,067 calls about random gunfire over the New Year’s weekend.
Widespread violation of the law against celebratory gunfire capped a yearlong wave of crime in 2022 across the metroplex. At year’s end, Dallas political leaders had made little discernible progress in restoring public safety, and continue to focus their attention elsewhere heading into 2023.