New Year's stray bullet pierces Tolleson man's car window: 'These things have consequences'

TOLLESON, Ariz. - A Tolleson man woke up New Year's morning to find a bullet hole in his truck window.

David Williams lives just off of 100th Avenue and Lower Buckeye Road. No one was hurt, but he's worried now about what could have happened.

Williams and his family heard plenty of fireworks going off Friday night as Arizonans rang in the New Year, and there were times when they thought they heard some gunshots too, but they never expected that one of those bullets would hit so close to home.

"I was angry," he said. "I came out and got in my truck, noticed broken glass on the dash, looked up and saw the hole."

He and his wife searched around the driveway and eventually found a stray bullet on the ground that they believe was shot off during New Year's celebrations.

The damage, Williams says, isn't what bothers him. He's more worried about what could have happened.

"I probably won't even pay for it, the insurance company will but the fact that it could've hit somebody from my family or somebody else's family really scared me," Williams said.

Firing a bullet into the air is a felony in Arizona, thanks to Shannon's Law. It used to be a misdemeanor until June 1999 when 8th grader Shannon Smith was killed in her backyard by a random bullet that fell, hitting her in the head. That bullet was fired into the air more than a mile away.

Williams says he posted about the incident on the app Nextdoor so that other neighbors would be aware, and hopefully, the person who did this can think twice before randomly firing again.

"These things have consequences. When a bullet goes up, it's gonna come down, and it might not be something insurance can fix. It could be somebody's kid," Williams said.

The incident has been reported to the police.

Man fires 21 rounds into the air, police say

Unrelated to this incident, a man over in El Mirage was arrested for reportedly firing his gun into the air nearly two dozen times on New Year's Eve, police said Saturday.

Witnesses reportedly saw 27-year-old Michael Sais shooting into the air several times. When police arrived at the man's home, they found multiple shell casings on the porch.

An investigation revealed that Sais had fired 21 rounds from an AR-15 rifle, officials said.

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