Bullet falling from the sky kills Houston man

[Vol Texan]

I hope they find the idiot who did this:

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/ho ... fb-premium

Just a few moments into the New Year, Javier Suarez Rivera stood in his driveway with his wife to watch fireworks burst in the night sky, listening to their pops mingled with the sounds of unseen neighbors shooting guns into the air.

As he looked up, a bullet came down.

Rivera collapsed, falling backward onto the concrete, blood pouring from a wound to his head. Inside his house, 18 family members, who had been sharing midnight hugs and handshakes, heard his wife's screams for someone to call 911.

[carlson1]

[mreed911]

Anyone who lives in Houston for any amount of time knows that you GO INSIDE at 10:45 and don't come out until the morning on NYE.

LOTS of cars will have bullet hole damage in them. It's not uncommon for us to find actual bullets (lead+copper) in the parking lots of our stations the morning after.

[ScottDLS]

I hope they find the idiot who did this:

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/ho ... =fb-pemium

Just a few moments into the New Year, Javier Sruarez Rivera stood in his driveway with his wife to watch fireworks burst in the night sky, listening to their pops mingled with the sounds of unseen neighbors shooting guns into the air.

As he looked up, a bullet came down.

Rivera collapsed, falling backward onto the concrete, blood pouring from a wound to his head. Inside his house, 18 family members, who had been sharing midnight hugs and handshakes, heard his wife's screams for someone to call 911.

This is really tragic, but I believe some further investigation is warranted. I believe in most cases terminal velocity for a falling object is about 120 fps or 154 mph. A roughly straight up until it falls back bullet would have lost it's spin and lateral velocity (if any). I guess if it hit you in the eye...or soft tissue of the neck... I highly suspect "defilade" fire. In other words more lateral from a higher vertical location...or maybe even someone with evil intent shooting while covered by celebratory fireworks.

There was an incident at a theme park near Charlotte, NC (Carowinds) in the '80's where a girl was killed while in the swimming pool. It was by someone shooting an AK-47 at around 45 degrees from vertical near the park. The State couldn't prove who actually fired the shot so they couldn't bring a manslaughter case, but it turns out that the AK-47 was illegally converted to full-auto so the Feds prosecuted the owner for manufacture/possession of an unregistered machine gun. That came with a 10 year sentence.

[Vol Texan]

I hope they find the idiot who did this:

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/ho ... =fb-pemium

Just a few moments into the New Year, Javier Sruarez Rivera stood in his driveway with his wife to watch fireworks burst in the night sky, listening to their pops mingled with the sounds of unseen neighbors shooting guns into the air.

As he looked up, a bullet came down.

Rivera collapsed, falling backward onto the concrete, blood pouring from a wound to his head. Inside his house, 18 family members, who had been sharing midnight hugs and handshakes, heard his wife's screams for someone to call 911.

This is really tragic, but I believe some further investigation is warranted. I believe in most cases terminal velocity for a falling object is about 120 fps or 154 mph. A roughly straight up until it falls back bullet would have lost it's spin and lateral velocity (if any). I guess if it hit you in the eye...or soft tissue of the neck... I highly suspect "defilade" fire. In other words more lateral from a higher vertical location...or maybe even someone with evil intent shooting while covered by celebratory fireworks.

There was an incident at a theme park near Charlotte, NC (Carowinds) in the '80's where a girl was killed while in the swimming pool. It was by someone shooting an AK-47 at around 45 degrees from vertical near the park. The State couldn't prove who actually fired the shot so they couldn't bring a manslaughter case, but it turns out that the AK-47 was illegally converted to full-auto so the Feds prosecuted the owner for manufacture/possession of an unregistered machine gun. That came with a 10 year sentence.

I tend to agree with you ScottDLS. I would wager that this was a much lower (perhaps 20-45 degree) shot by someone thinking they were shooting in the air. The bullet could have traveled a long way before coming down, maintaining enough of its velocity to do damage.

[Outnumbered]

This sounded EXACTLY like a story from last New Year's. Checked the date... 2015.

[Vol Texan]

This sounded EXACTLY like a story from last New Year's. Checked the date... 2015.

You're right! My bad on posting this as a new story. The lesson is still the same...but I'm a bit behind the times on my reading I guess!

[viking1000]

A story from last year ......

[Outnumbered]

This sounded EXACTLY like a story from last New Year's. Checked the date... 2015.

You're right! My bad on posting this as a new story. The lesson is still the same...but I'm a bit behind the times on my reading I guess!

I'm just glad to learn that the same thing didn't happen again a year later.

[PBR]

I was wondering why it hadn't been all over the news cause you know with OC now they would of jumped all over it. I know around here there was a bunch of shots going off, someone behind me has a pretty good size gun for sure. Some idiot from neighbors party pulled his out of his car as he was leaving around 5am this morning and unloaded it, I'm sure he was good and drunk for sure.

[The Wall]

They had this on Myth Busters. Basically they showed that if you shoot straight up into the air it won't kill you. If you shoot it at an angle other than straight up it could have enough velocity to injure or kill depending on the angle. Not something anyone should be doing regardless.

[The Annoyed Man]

They had this on Myth Busters. Basically they showed that if you shoot straight up into the air it won't kill you. If you shoot it at an angle other than straight up it could have enough velocity to injure or kill depending on the angle. Not something anyone should be doing regardless.

I have personally worked on two such patients, in the space of one New Years Eve. The first came to our ER in the afternoon, after having a .45 230 grain FMJ come down through the ragtop of his jeep, striking him in the thigh and breaking his femur, while he sat at a red light at a major Pasadena intersection. The second patient was brought to us late that night. She had been hit by a .223 caliber bullet in the top of her left shoulder. The bullet transited through her left chest/lung, through her diaphragm, through her left abdomen, holing her bowel in multiple places and her spleen in the process, bounced to the right off her inner left pelvis, destroyed her bladder, bounced upwards off her inner right pelvis, and came to rest in the dome of her liver. 14 hours of surgery and 24 units of blood later, she lives.

People who celebrate their alcohol problems by firing their guns into the air near population centers should be made to dance while others shoot at their feet......until they run out of ammo.....which in my case could take a long time....

[tlt]

Wow what a shame. I swear I could hear gun fire in Austin. Like most of you we don't go anywhere during the holidays. Thank you for sharing your experience annoyed man. This should be shared far and wide.

What a loss and shock for the family. I hope they do forensics to try and track down the origin of the shots fired.

[Charles L. Cotton]

I hope they find the idiot who did this:

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/ho ... =fb-pemium

Just a few moments into the New Year, Javier Sruarez Rivera stood in his driveway with his wife to watch fireworks burst in the night sky, listening to their pops mingled with the sounds of unseen neighbors shooting guns into the air.

As he looked up, a bullet came down.

Rivera collapsed, falling backward onto the concrete, blood pouring from a wound to his head. Inside his house, 18 family members, who had been sharing midnight hugs and handshakes, heard his wife's screams for someone to call 911.

. . . I believe in most cases terminal velocity for a falling object is about 120 fps or 154 mph. A roughly straight up until it falls back bullet would have lost it's spin and lateral velocity (if any). I guess if it hit you in the eye...or soft tissue of the neck... I highly suspect "defilade" fire. In other words more lateral from a higher vertical location...or maybe even someone with evil intent shooting while covered by celebratory fireworks. . . .

Free-falling rounds simply do not have the energy to penetrate the skull or significantly deep into soft tissue. As The Wall noted, Myth Busters did a segment on this sometime back.

This is terribly sad and so preventable. I hope the person who did this is caught and prosecuted.

Chas.

[JP171]

this story may have been from last year, but here is one from this year. One of my soldiers was out during the NYE celebration standing by his car, he said he heard a some what loud "thwack" sound by his right side, looked over and saw an irregular hole in his car roof that had not been there before. He hasn't pulled the roof liner to see but it was most likely a projectile from some(insert favorite cuss word) shooting into the air. yes I did use a fire arm during the festivities, I shot a half pound of tannerite and made a great big bang the shot was NOT up in the air, nor was it in the direction of any habitation it did scare the living daylights out of my neighbors and the hole in my back yard my wife says I have to fill in( no I was not consuming adult beverages before the tannerite). I hate to say that any gun owner is irresponsible but hey it is what it is, some people should not be playing with big boy toys.