FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Seven-year-old Jason Puentes left Broward Health on Monday with a bandaged arm and a survival story to tell. Doctors removed a bullet from his arm.
His mother, Mayra Soto, said she was grateful he was alive. Jason was swimming about 8:30 p.m. during a Fourth of July party at his grandmother’s house in Fort Lauderdale.
“So I was in the pool, and then like something hit my arm and then I was like bleeding a lot,” Jason said, adding it “hurted.”
Soto thinks a stray bullet struck her son. Nearby, bullets damaged a neighbor’s windshield and damaged another car. Detectives said the bullet that struck Jason’s arm could have been fired from a mile away.
“I can’t believe it actually happened, I see it on the news all of the time but I didn’t think it would happen to us.” Soto said.
Jason’s mother also has a message for the shooter: “Just to be careful because that bullet has to come down and you don’t know who you’re hurting like it hurt my son.”