West Florida boy critically wounded by celebratory gunfire

By the CNN Wire Staff

updated 4:32 PM EST, Sun January 1, 2012

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• A 12-year-old boy was watching fireworks when he was hit, a sheriff's office says
• A bullet -- possibly fired from miles away -- went through the top of his head
• He is now in critical condition in a Tampa hospital

(CNN) -- A west Florida boy is in critical condition after a bullet apparently fired skyward during a New Year's celebration went into his head, authorities said Sunday.

The 12-year-old boy was sitting in the front yard of his Ruskin, Florida, home watching fireworks around 1 a.m. Sunday when he fell to the ground, bleeding from the nose and eyes, Larry McKinnon of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said Sunday in a statement.

The victim's mother drove him to South Bay Hospital in Sun City Center, where doctors determined that a gunshot had gone through the top of the boy's head. The child was then transported to Tampa General Hospital, where he was in critical condition Sunday afternoon with the bullet still lodged in his head, McKinnon said.

No one in the immediate area around the victim's house was firing a gun, the boy's relatives and neighbors told detectives. Police believe that celebratory gunfire, possibly shot from miles away, wounded the boy.

If true, this would not be the first time that a child was inadvertently shot in the Southeast on New Year's Eve and in the hours after midnight. In 2009, 4-year-old Marquel Peters died after a bullet went through the roof a suburban Atlanta church and hit him.

The boy's mother, Nathalee Peters, has since launched an online effort -- called Marquel's Pledge -- to urge people not to shoot into the air in celebration. It's one of several such campaigns nationwide, including one in Miami called, "One bullet kills the party."

CNN's George Howell contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/01/us/florida-celebratory-gunfire/index.html?eref=rss_mostpopular

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