Macon Woman Counting Her Blessings After Stray Bullet Comes Through Her Home

MACON, Miss. (WCBI)- Imagine sitting in your living room watching TV with family, then all of a sudden a bullet comes through your roof.

It happened to Bessie Foote just after midnight.

The Macon woman said she was watching the New Year’s Eve Ball Drop with her family members when the stray bullet came flying in.

“I was sitting up here and they had just got through doing the countdown for the New Year,” Foote recalled. “We heard a commotion over there and saw a little puff of smoke and we didn’t know what had happened until my grandson saw the bullet laying on the cabinet.”

The bullet whole in her ceiling is a constant reminder of the frightening moment.

Foote said people in her neighborhood were shooting guns into the air as a way to celebrate the new year.

She said she’s thankful no one was injured because her granddaughter was sitting in a chair, then moved to another seat closer to the TV.

Just moments after she got up, that’s when the bullet came in and ricocheted off the chair where her granddaughter was previously sitting before landing on the kitchen counter top.

“She had been sitting there and then she had moved to this seat right here,” said Foote. “I’m just so glad that the Lord saw fit for the bullet to go somewhere else and didn’t hurt anybody.”

Foote went to church earlier in the night for Watch Night Service, and she believes it was nothing but the Lord that kept everyone inside the home out of harms way.

“I could’ve been in the bed,” said Foote. “I could’ve been sitting up here and it came from that way. Nothing you can do but trust in God.”

“When shooting any kind of firearm, you’ve got to always be mindful of where you are aiming, and your surroundings, and your neighbors, pretty much know where everybody lives,” said Sergeant Eddie Hill, with the Macon Police Department. “You always need to be mindful of where you are aiming because wherever you aim, that’s where the bullet is going.”

The Macon Police Department is still investigating the shooting.

Police Chief Devine Beck said it is illegal to shoot a gun in city limits.

If a person is caught, they will be fined $800.