DETROIT (WWJ) – Police and community leaders in Detroit are urging residents to "Ring in the New Year with a Bell, Not a Bang."
Rev. Nicholas Hood III is renewing his annual plea for Detroiters put away their firearms and celebrate peacefully as the calendar turns to 2022.
Hood is the founder of the "Ring in the New Year with a Bell, Not a Bang" campaign, which is in its 24th year.
The campaign began after a stray bullet from "celebratory" gunfire claimed the life of 47-year-old Sandra Latham, a Detroit grandmother.
"Sandra Latham was killed in her dining room with her children and grandchildren beside her. I guess they heard a glass break, but they never heard the gunfire," Hood said.
It has long been a "tradition" for Detroiters to shoot their guns up into the air at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve. Many cities across the country deal with similar incidents every year.
The scenes on the city's east side were captured in a chilling video as the calendar turned to 2019.
The issue with shooting bullets straight up in the air, Hood says, is they have to come down somewhere.
"Even though you don't mean any harm, the bullet is going to come down somewhere. And somebody could get injured, if not killed," Hood said.
"I don't know what the thought is. They shoot a weapon, and they just think, oh the bullet is just going to disappear. No, it's coming down," Wayne County Sheriff Raphael Washington said.
Hood said earlier this week since the campaign's inception, no Detroiters have been killed by such gunfire on New Year's Eve.
