'Babe...I just got shot': Bullet hits pregnant Colorado mom, barely misses kids
"The bullet missed my 5-year-old daughter’s head by like a foot."
AURORA, Colo. (KDVR) — A pregnant Colorado woman has been released from the hospital after she was hit by a stray bullet while sleeping inside her home this week.
Kendall Heinold said she and her family woke up to the sound of gunfire in their Aurora neighborhood early Thursday morning.
“[There] was just a really loud noise and then a lot of pain on my left side,” she said. "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 was taken to a hospital, where doctors found a bullet lodged in her shoulder.
The 27-year-old is 16 weeks pregnant and said doctors decided to leave the bullet in her rather than place her under anesthesia for surgery.
Aurora police believe that the bullet may have traveled hundreds of feet in the air over a greenbelt that backs up to the family's home.
Bullet hole barely misses sleeping children
The family said they later found a bullet hole in the bedroom of their children, ages 5 and 6.
"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 said. "The pregnancy pillow, honestly, I think is what saved my life because it went in through the side, and my arm was on top of it. So the bullet changed trajectory when it hit my pillow."
The family shared a video with Nexstar's KDVR of eight gunshots recorded on a neighbor's security camera.
Heinold said she's thankful nobody was killed but has a message to whoever fired those shots.
“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,” she said. "That bullet traveled somewhere and it ended up coming into my home, and it hit me. So, 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 but still scary.”