FORT WORTH, Texas — Anytime he walks through his living room or through his backdoor, Donald Mahand still has a reminder of what happened last 4th of July.
“Someone was acting very foolishly,” said Mahand.
He’s tried to repair the bullet hole from was he believes was holiday-related gunfire last year. Mahand was in his bedroom when he heard a loud tinny, ricochet noise. It wasn’t until the next morning that he found the holes in his door and ceiling.
“This tremendous sound happened,” Mahand said. “It didn’t immediately make me think that a round had hit the house.”
Mahand said celebratory gunfire is common in the neighborhood. Fort Worth police are overwhelmed with calls the night of the 4th of July, but many times it turns out what sounds like a gunshot is one.
“It's hard to tell the difference between fireworks and gunfire,” Fort Worth Police spokesperson Brad Perez said. “They have injured people in the past. They have killed people in the past, and it's something that we deal with every year. It's something that we try to educate the public about.”
“People fire off their guns for celebrating anything you know,” said Mahand.
This year, he plans to stay at home again.
“I’m more alert right now,” he said. "I’m certainly going to be looking and paying close attention.”
He served in the military, owns weapons and warns firing in the ground or air is equally careless and risky.
“You could hurt yourself. You could hurt your own family,” Mahan said. “Just stop and think about who you might be unknowingly changing their life forever.”
“The last thing we want is to anyone, especially a child, you know, an innocent person to be to be to lose their life in such a way,” said Perez.