A cyclist in New Orleans has filmed the moment a fellow cyclist on a club run was shot by a stray bullet on Saturday.
Reid Case was riding behind Christopher Weiss when his friend suddenly clutched his back in pain, reports wwltv.com.
Initially, Weiss thought he had been hit by a pellet from a paintball gun, something that had happened to the group previously and which prompted Case to get his camera.
But police subsequently confirmed that he had suffered a gunshot injury and been hit by a stray bullet from a nearby shooting.
Weiss, who is recovering in hospital but is expected to make a full recovery, said: “The bullet is still in my back.
“It came really close to hitting my spine, which would have been a very different story," he continued.
“I reached back expecting to feel my hand come away with paint and then there was no paint.
“Then what went through my head was ‘OK, I’ve been shot, but it was something worse than a paintball.”
Weiss, who is a long time reader of road.cc contacted us by email this afternoon still understandably angry and upset over the incident and keen to keep the pressure on the local law enforcement agencies to bring the perpetrators to justice.
"Aside from Kevlar kits, I'm at a loss as to what could be done. I've had my story on the local ePapers, news, etc. and have the support of lawyers in the club and the local advocacy group (http://bikeeasy.org/). For me it's important that the word get out to keep NOPD (New Orleans Police Department) on it, and to try and stop bikers being treated as fodder for target practice (we've had a rash of paintball attacks and this is a really nasty escalation), or at least have the perpetrators think there might be legal repercussions.
"To be clear, I was shot with a bullet, not pellet or BB. There's been muddling over here on that point, and it's much easier for the city if it's not treated as a bullet shooting."
Given that an already serious incident could have been much more serious or even lethal we're sure that this is wish shared by all New Orleans cyclists and anyone thinking of visiting the Big Easy and taking to two wheels.
From everyone here at road.cc we wish Chris a speedy recovery.
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21 comments
I see no shooting range at the intersection of Bullard and Hayne. Unless nail and hair bars are more dangerous than I thought.
Does it matter whether it was a "pellet" or a "bullet"? Someone apparently thought that it's acceptable to *shoot at cyclists*.
Bullet or pellet does not matter, it is the fact that people are being targeted on their bicycles for the fact that they are in the open and vulnerable. There are pellet guns that are strong enough to take down fairly large game. All those of you who would denegrate or demean someone because of the country they live in, are missing the point. We as cyclists need to stand up for our rights to ride and be safe, whether the weapon is a projectile thrown, a gun, or a car. We rise together or fall together and when we do not come together as a united group we fall, quite literally.
I think the upshot was that it was 'accidental' a stray from a range or something.
Initial reports suggested it was stray from another shooting in the area (not from a range), but it has now been clarified that the 'other' shooting was in fact this one. The "fog of war". Likewise on the projectile:
"Furthermore, initial reports of this incident noted that the shot came from a BB/pellet," stated an email sent by NOPD spokesman Aaron Looney at 11:22 p.m. Saturday. "However, upon further investigation, detectives confirmed that the victim did in fact suffer a gunshot wound to the back and was transported to an area hospital for treatment."
http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2017/05/man_wounded_in_shooting_at_bul.html
@ Christopher Weiss - wishing you a speedy recovery.
This happened during our Saturday club ride. It was a small caliber bullet.
It's the freedom to bear arms that keeps America safe. As demonstrated here.
WE have freedom to bare arms too but it's cold and wet today
Whether bullet or pellet this is just crazy.
But you can get shot by pellets as well as bullets. All you need to do is read the clip's title.
Edit: yes, I know it was confirmed as a bullet now.
Clickbait title, it's a pellet not a bullet.
No, it actually was a bullet if you cared to read the article.
Video title is pellet, not bullet.
clickbait
I think we'll go with the guy that actually was on the receiving end of it, than the video poster who wasn't.
Did you see the photo of the wound?! Seriously? You think that's a pellet?
clearly you have no experience of weapons that fire projectiles, I can tell you from experience that a high powered air rifle can do plenty of damage quite easily.
A flat nosed pellet will give you more than just light bruising/red mark and do damage similar to that seen.
For the injury sustained and for it to be from a bullet in the true sense of the term then it would have to right at the very extreme range before it would simply fall to the ground http://www.chuckhawks.com/bullet_trajectory.htm and travelling pretty slowly (which could be much less than 100mph as some bullets penetrate skin even at 85mph) otherwise it would have entered the body, not that that's any bonus to the recipient.
IF it is a bullet and/or from a range then one has to ask the question how the feck could it even get past the safety measures to be able to hit someone at that angle/height.
Even with low powered range rifles to hit them at that height on the body it would have to be fired in an elevated position and not to have hit anything on its way down as it's slowing.
there's more to this than is being told IMHO
and i thought the wee bams flinging stones round our way were bad
I got shot with a pellet gun out the window of a Range Rover in East Greenwich once. Or perhaps it was just a stray bullet from a nearby shooting. You can never really tell sarf of the river.
Video title says
New Orleans cyclist shot with pellet gun while riding by Lakefront
Besides which, it was a pisstake on gun culture but never mind.
A shooting with a 'pellet gun' in America?!? A real American would have been shot with an AR15.
They didn't say "pellet"!