Local

Local firefighter struck by New Years' celebratory gunfire

A local firefighter is recovering after being hit by a stray bullet in her own home, just after the clock turned to 2019.

Glynn County firefighter Mary LeBrun has never been on the other end of an emergency before.

“I’ve always been with the families, and going to people getting shot,” said LeBrun. “I’ve never imagined the feeling of it until now.”

She was sitting in her living room in her Kingsland home on New Years’ Eve watching the ball drop.

Before the confetti even hit the ground, she heard a loud bang.

“I just started screaming, I’ve been shot,” she said. “It was the worst feeling in the world. It hurt so bad.”

A bullet from a 9-milimeter gun struck LeBrun in her right hip. Days later she still has the bruise, but the bullet never pierced her skin.

Investigators learned the bullet came through LeBrun’s kitchen cabinet. She says it came out through a less hollow part of the cabinet, which likely slowed it down before it hit her.

The firefighter of 19 years tells us she miraculously found the bullet in her robe pocket.

Her strongest warning against celebratory gunfire? The young lives that could have been in danger, because of someone else’s good time.

“If my grandson were here, he would have been sitting here on my lap,” she said. “And he was supposed to be here, for New Years’.”

Celebratory gunfire is illegal in both Georgia and Florida.