It’s no secret that violence in Mexico is widespread but for a surprised man in Sonora, not only did danger arrive at his home, it dropped right in.

Leobardo Calleros Juárez had just finished cleaning his kitchen when he stepped into his living room, sat down, and heard a sudden bang. 

“It all happened in fractions of a second. Since I’d just washed the dishes, it was such a loud noise, that I thought the dishes had fallen and were destroyed …” he said. 

He entered the kitchen and found a cloud of dust and natural light coming in from outside. He looked up, and saw a hole.

When Calleros realized the hole had been created by a bullet, he tried to stay safe by lodging himself in the door frame for nearly an hour. He later concluded that the bullet had hit the floor and ricocheted into a door. 

The resident of San Luis Río Colorado was already familiar with the dangers of stray bullets: a friend of his father lost his pregnant wife some years ago in a similar incident. 

“Thank God [the shooter] was not someone who wanted to put my life at risk … he was an unaware person who shot in the air, for whatever reason,” he said.

Calleros published an account of the incident on social media to raise awareness about the dangers of stray bullets, and urged caution over the festive season. 

“It was something that I didn’t expect, no one expects it. Death can arrive just like that. I shared it to be able to generate awareness so that people don’t shoot in the air,” he added, before offering an appropriate adage: “Everything that goes up tends to come back down,” he said. 

Injuries and even deaths from stray bullets are not uncommon in Mexico, particularly at Christmas and on other festive occasions. A 5-year-old boy died in Michoacán in the early hours of January 1 when a bullet passed through the roof of his home and killed him. 

The incident, one of several last January, was attributed to someone firing a weapon into the air during a New Year’s celebration.

With reports from Tribuna de San Luis Río Colorado