MEMPHIS, Tenn. (localmemphis.com) – Tuesday night, some of you more than likely heard gunshots ringing in the New Year. However, one of those bullets came a little too close for comfort for Shelby County School board member, Michelle McKissack and her husband.
A stray bullet hit their car. Thankfully, Michelle and her husband were not inside of that car when the bullet hit their windshield, but they were feet away from getting in.
The entire incident was recorded on her mother’s Nest surveillance camera. It happened around 7:30 p.m.Tuesday night. She and her husband were leaving her mother’s home on South Main after picking up pizzas.
“I immediately ducked because it sounded like a gunshot, and I didn’t know where it came from and I peeked up to check on my husband and I saw smoke coming off of my windshield,” McKissack explained.
The bullet nearly hit her husband’s face.
“And it pierced it and then it bounced and about a foot from where he was standing was where the bullet landed,” McKissack said.
Memphis Police arrived on the scene immediately after it happened. Officers told McKissack the bullet likely came from celebratory shooting for New Year’s Eve.
“It’s not fireworks, these are real live bullets that can have serious consequences and thankfully it was just a car windshield and I’m so thankful that it didn’t hit my husband or me,” McKissack said.
Tuesday, before the New Year’s Eve festivities, Shelby County Sheriff’s Department issued a safety reminder to not shoot weapons into the air as celebratory expressions because what comes up must come down.
“A friend of mine who lives in Houston reached out to me and said I’m so glad you’re okay because a nurse was killed in Houston last night from a stray bullet falling from the sky that someone was celebrating,” McKissack said.
She further explains her husband hesitated walking to the car when the bullet hit that windshield. She says had he not done that, there’s no telling what would have happened.