Falling Bullets from New Year’s Eve Celebration Strike Two People

Police in Delray Beach, FL, plan to conduct an aggressive attack against the reckless holiday tradition of firing guns into the air to welcome in the New Year, an irresponsible type of celebrating that has become dangerously reckless in recent years. Two people were struck early Sunday morning during the city’s First Night celebration, resulting in angry reactions from officials and the public. Heather Leitch, 32, was sitting outside a restaurant with her mother, Mary Valcoff, just before midnight when she was shocked to feel a bullet slice into her chest. "All of a sudden she starts screaming," Valcoff told reporters, obviously shaken. "She said, ‘I think I’ve been shot…Oh my God, it hurts.’ Blood was gushing." The bullet missed the young woman’s heart by less than inch.

Larry Cerullo, 45, of Long Beach, NY, was struck in the head by a bullet, but it did not penetrate his skull and he was treated and released. About 15 minutes after the shooting, police responding to the call heard another bullet strike a parked car. Reports of shots fired led police to a group of men who tossed aside eight guns in an alley before running from the police. Police recovered four assault rifles, two hunting rifles, and two shotguns. The owner of the guns, Anthony Spells of Delray Beach, was not charged. No connection has been discovered between the shots reported and the shooting victims about a mile away, although Officer Jeff Messer, spokesman for the Delray Beach Police Department, said a bullet shot into the air could fall that distance.

The errant gunfire to ring in the New Year is not a new problem, but was the most dangerous in this year’s celebration, which drew about 35,000 people downtown. In 1998, two people were grazed by stray bullets, and in 2003 a random bullet hit a man’s arm. Messer said, "This is absolutely outrageous behavior. It’s ‘Shoot it up in the air and it doesn’t matter where it lands.’ Well, it does matter." Mayor Jeff Perlman was quite upset by the shootings. "First Night is built around an expectation of a safe, family-oriented, alcohol-free alternative for people of all ages," Perlman said. "It’s as wholesome as apple pie. To hear that we have people injured just makes your blood boil."

Preventing future incidents at the First Night celebrations may involve more than simply catching the perpetrator’s of this year’s shootings, Perlman said, but he isn’t sure how to begin. "I don’t know how you legislate against morons. Do you have to have a campaign to say, ‘Don’t fire a gun into the air because it might come down?’" He added, "I don’t know what the answer is, because I don’t think you can legislate against stupidity."