Four-year-old Marquel Peters was killed by a stray bullet during a New Year’s Eve service at his DeKalb church.
Posted on 01/01/2010 4:46:43 PM PST by rawhide
A 4-year-old boy attending a New Year's Eve church service with his family was killed when a stray bullet came through the roof, hitting him in the head.
The boy, Marquel Peters, was sitting beside his mother in the sanctuary during an intermission, said Lloyd Phipps, senior pastor at the Church of God of Prophecy near Decatur.
About 350 people were gathered in the DeKalb County church on Covington Drive, waiting for a concert to begin at 12:30 a.m. Friday, Phipps said.
"We heard a loud pop, which we now assume was when the bullet came through the roof," Phipps said.
The child, who had been playing a video game moments before the incident, fell to the floor.
"He appeared to be unconscious at first, and then he started crying," Phipps said.
Phipps said the church members prayed for the child, and continued with the planned concert, believing the child would survive his injury.
The child was rushed to a hospital, where he later died, according to Officer Jason Gagnon with DeKalb police.
The pastor and the parishioners where still in the church when they learned of the child's death about 3:30 a.m., Phipps said. He said during the concert, the boy's family kept him updated on the child's condition, which he believed was improving.
Investigators returned to the church later Friday, where they discovered the point of entry for the bullet: in the roof of the church. Phipps said police believe someone fired a celebratory shot into the air, and it went through the roof on its way down.
"It's one of those things that you just cannot make any sense out of," Phipps said. "This lady took her kid to church, which is the right thing to do. And her son got killed because of someone’s irresponsible behavior."
(Excerpt) Read more at ajc.com ...
Four-year-old Marquel Peters was killed by a stray bullet during a New Year’s Eve service at his DeKalb church.
Dreadful. RIP.
Terrible. God be with them.
I’m having a little trouble buying this story.
Poor beautiful little baby. Play in heaven now, dear child, and wait for your mommy to join you there someday.
Horrible. There is no excuse for discharging a killing tool for other than it’s designed purpose, including practice. I hope the person who fired that round realizes what he/she did.
Instead of going straight to the hospital, church members prayed for the child, and continued with the planned concert. How insane is that?
Oddly enough I saw a rerun of the mythbusters episode where they tested this one today.
It seems a true straight up shot wouldn’t have the energy to penetrate the skull but just a couple degrees off straight up allows the projectile to keep its ballistic energy.
I suspect they’ll be able to trace the bullet back to where it was fired from.
It needs some work.....
Last year somebody sued the landlord of an apartment complex for failure to maintain safe premises -- because she was struck by a stray bullet fired by an unknown person during New Year's revels.
It must have been a fairly large rifle bullet to penetrate the roof of a church building and still retain enough velocity to kill this poor little kid.
You have a point. There are many possibilities here.
That’s how I read it at first but I think it was just poorly written. I suspect the parents took the child to the hospital and the church went on with the program.
I don’t know how this happened, but I don’t believe a bullet could reach enough terminal velocity to come back down at the speed required to go THROUGH A ROOF and then enter a human (albeit small) skull.
Something is just not right here.
Tragic what happened to the little boy.
However this seems strange to me. I wouldn’t think a falling bullet would have the velocity to penetrate a roof and kill someone.
I’ll have to do some checking.
There are neighborhoods in most metropolitan areas where this third world behavior takes place.
In the Phoenix area, the cops have the technology to track down the source of the bullets.
I'm guessing you don't know much about guns...and neither did whoever the idiot was that shot into the air. those bullets don't go off into never never land.
I don’t know....seems to me that if a bullet was falling back down after beig fired in the air, it would just bounce off the roof not go through it...weird.
The article did not specify the angle of the trajectory. If fired near 48 degress the bullet would carry to maximum range and would not dwell in the air long enough to slow down that much.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.