FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Police are investigating after a New Year’s tragedy in Fort Lauderdale.
A man was struck and killed by a stray bullet while hugging his partner at midnight.
With just two minutes to spare before the start of 2025, Angel Nunes made a surprise visit to Chris Dillon’s home.
“He says, ‘I didn’t want you to spend New Year’s Eve by yourself,” Dillon said. “And if I didn’t love him before, I certainly loved him after that statement.”
But as fireworks exploded in the background, that heartfelt moment between the couple turned into tragedy in a split second as the two embraced while standing on the back patio.
“I let go and I said ‘I love you’ and he said ‘I love you,’” Dillon said. “He’s standing here and all of a sudden he went like this, and I saw out the corner of my eye, a flash, like a tiny flash, and then he fell.”
Dillon called 911 and by 12:02 a.m. New Year’s Day, police and paramedics were racing to the Fort Lauderdale home on Northeast 17th Court and Seventh Avenue.
But Nunez did not survive the gunshot wound from the stray bullet that Dillon believes came from across the Middle River, on the Wilton Manors side.
“Figure the odds of where he was standing,” said Dillon. “The bullet truly came down from this direction.”
Now the fun-loving 50-year-old father of two from a previous relationship is being remembered as a hard-working and kind spirit, a man silenced by someone being negligent with a gun right at the start of the new year.
“You shoot up in the air for fun, you can’t do it in a city,” said Dillon. “My God, you killed somebody.”