RUSKIN, Fla. — Every New Year's holiday, we cover stories of stray bullets hitting property or people.
Celebratory gunfire is illegal and can be deadly — bullets shot senselessly into the sky must land somewhere and often they can end up a few miles away in someone's yard or home or worse, injuring or killing someone.
Eleven years ago, Diego Duran, who was 12 years old at the time, was standing in his yard in Ruskin, Florida, with his family watching fireworks just after midnight on Jan. 1.
Suddenly, he dropped to the ground and when his mother, Sandy turned him over, blood was pooling all around him. To this day, Sandy Duran still trembles when she remembers that night.
Diego Duran's doctor said the bullet traveled through his brain and was lodged in his face. A few milliliters different, and his doctor said he wouldn't have survived.
After years of recovery, Diego Duran graduated high school and college and now at age 23, works as a mechanic.
"He still has a shunt placed to drain cerebral spinal fluids, his memory was affected," explained Sandy Duran, who considers her son's recovery a true miracle.
In the years following Diego Duran's injury, Sandy Duran and others advocated across the Tampa Bay region for more awareness about celebratory gunfire.
"Yes, people have their rights but with a right comes responsibility too. A lot of people don’t know about gravity. They think they (bullets) disappear into the sky. They don’t know that this bullet can come down and kill somebody immediately within miles," Sandy Duran said.
In recent years, stray bullets in Tampa Bay have landed in a church, grazed a baby and hit a woman at Busch Gardens.
"Celebratory gunfire is both dangerous and illegal. Please no celebratory gunfire," said Tampa Police Lt. Bryan Felts ahead of the 2023 New Year's holiday.
Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister issued this online PSA: