Between Don Lemon’s on-air theatrics at CNN and Mariah Carey’s trainwreck of a performance on ABC’s Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, 2017’s celebrations were already off to a pretty weird start. The word “weird” may also apply to the night Texas State Rep. Armando Martinez (D-Weslaco) had just north of the U.S.-Mexico border, though “shocking,” “horrific,” and “miraculous” work just as well. That’s because Martinez was struck in the head by a random bullet fragment.
Martinez, who spoke with CNN on Monday, said he’d just kissed his wife at midnight and had stepped outside of his Weslaco home when the stray bullet hit. “It felt like a sledgehammer hit me over the head,” he explained. Doctors later told him the fragment had only punctured the top of his head, causing mostly surface damage but thankfully not penetrating any further:
Martinez, 40, was transferred to the neurosurgical unit at Valley Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen, where surgeons removed the bullet fragment. The fragment had penetrated his skull and lodged itself into the dura mater, the top layer of the brain, doctors told Martinez.
The fragment appears to be from a .223 caliber round, said Martinez, who spoke to CNN by phone on Sunday while recovering at the hospital.
“Had it gone any further, I don’t think we would be having this conversation,” Martinez said.
Hidalgo County Sheriff Eddie Guerra and his office suspect Martinez “was hit by a stray bullet,” thought as department spokesperson JP Rodriguez noted, “there is no evidence to indicate he was targeted.”
(Via CNN)