HOMESTEAD, Fla. – A stray bullet injured a woman while she was watching fireworks on Thursday night in Homestead and she remained hospitalized in intensive care on Friday morning, police said.
According to the Homestead Police Department, the shooting that wounded the woman on her shoulder was in the area of Northwest Ninth Avenue and Fourth Street.
The woman was airlifted from Baptist Health Homestead Hospital to the Jackson South Medical Center where she remained on Friday, police said.
The woman was among two victims of stray bullets in Miami-Dade County. A 13-year-old boy was injured in the arm.
The teenage boy was treated at Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center on Thursday night and released Friday morning.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue told Local 10 News that two trauma alert patients with traumatic injuries were taken to Ryder Trauma Center following fireworks-related incidents.
Also on Thursday, fireworks burned three minors in South Florida.
“There’s about 9,700 firework-related injures per year, eight of those being fatal,” said Luis DeRosa, BSN, RN, EMT-P at Ryder Trauma Center.
Tamika Braithwaite recalls the horror of witnessing her 17-year-old son engulfed in flames.
It happened Thursday night in Miami Gardens.
“As soon as they lit (the fire work) it blew up,” Braithwaite said. “He is suffering from burns on his face, lasceration on the top of his eye, which they are going to do surgery on now.”
In Broward County, officials urged safety in both using and selecting fireworks.
“We see cases of fireworks that are older and expired, and they still try to light them,” said Dr. Craig Harrison, Emergency Medicine Physician for Broward Health. “Unfortunately those are going to ignite and progress at a little different rate than they might be expected to proceed at. and that’s where a lot of those injuries happen.”
Detectives asked anyone with information about this or other cases to call Miami-Dade County Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.
Local 10 News Assignment Desk Editor Joyce Grace Ortega contributed to this report.