Ricardo Perrault said he was separating some fireworks to light just minutes before midnight on New Year’s Eve when he felt a pain and then searing sensation in his upper back.

What he initially thought was a bottle rocket that had been launched in his grandparent’s New Orleans East neighborhood, was instead a falling bullet that left a deep gash in his back and came within inches of doing worse damage by striking him in the spine or head.

“Something hit me so hard, I swear it felt like a sledgehammer,” said Perrault.

“If he had been hit an inch in either direction, it would have come straight down on his head and he would not be here today,” said his mother Lynette.

Perrault says the grace of God kept his injury from being worse. X-rays from his trip to the hospital didn’t show a bullet lodged in his body but he said he was told that based on the size of the injury, it was likely from a 9mm gun or a .45 caliber gun.
 
Just before noon Thursday, Perrault found the bullet in his grandparent’s backyard with the aid of an Eyewitness News crew. He said it still contained some black fuzz from the sweatshirt he had been wearing when he was struck.

“That’s a big bullet,” he exclaimed. “I can’t believe this. By the grace of God I’m standing here today.”

Both Perrault and his mother say they are angry that people continue to celebrate the New Year by sending bullets into the air, unconcerned about where they may land.

“I’m really frustrated,” he said. “It already killed one person several years ago. You’ve got tons of kids out celebrating, elderly people…”

The NOPD said it received 56 calls about gunfire on New Year's Eve, down from 66 a year earlier. Two people were apprehended for illegal possession of firearms.

source: wwltv.com

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