A pregnant Colorado woman was sleeping in her bed when she was struck by a stray bullet that narrowly missed her two young children.
Kendall Heinold was at home in Aurora early Thursday morning when she heard gunfire and then felt a sharp pain in her left side.
“My husband was sleeping next to me and he got up and was like, ‘Did you hear that?’ Because it was so loud, and I just looked at him and was like, ‘Babe, call 911, I just got shot,’” Heinold told KDVR.
The 27-year-old was rushed to the hospital where doctors found the bullet lodged in her shoulder.
However, because she is 16 weeks pregnant, doctors decided to leave the bullet in her rather than place her under anesthesia for surgery.
Investigators from the Aurora Police Department said the bullet may have struck Heinold after traveling hundreds of feet over a greenbelt behind her family’s home, according to KDVR.
Heinold and her husband later found a bullet hole in the house just inches away from where her children, ages 5 and 6, had been sleeping. The bullet went through the kids’ room first, she said.
“The bullet missed my 5-year-old daughter’s head by like a foot, and went through their room, through my closet and into my pregnancy pillow,” Heinold told the outlet.
She said she believes the pregnancy pillow “is what saved my life,” because it forced the bullet to change trajectory before hitting her.
Security footage from a neighbor’s home recorded at least eight gunshots that morning.
“I don’t think I was targeted, I don’t think this was intentional, but I think people need to know when a gun is shot, the bullet goes somewhere,” Heinold said.
“Luckily, it missed my children and my baby and my dog and my husband, but ended up in my arm, which I think is best case scenario, considering, but still scary.”
