MIAMI – A 33-year-old was back home Wednesday after he was grazed by a bullet on New Year's Eve. It happened on the 2400 block of NW 32nd Avenue.
Eyner Melendez, 33, said he was celebrating 2013 and his son's first birthday with his family when he felt something hit his arm. A stray bullet had pierced the skin on his arm.
"Mucha sangre," said Melendez. There was a lot of blood.
"Does it hurt?" Local 10's Ross Palombo asked.
"Yes!" said Melendez.
Melendez said gunfire in Nicaragua is a New Year's Eve tradition.
"So, you're not mad?" asked Palombo.
"No," Melendez answered.
Sulman Galdamez, Melendez's wife, was holding a torn shirt that she now believes is a sacred souvenir. It was the safe ending to a shooting that the family sees as a sign from God.
"I was scared, very nervous," Galdamez said.
She said she saw it happen and saw that it safely missed her husband's head and vital organs.
"It's close to the heart, you see?" said Galamez
It also missed the very spot where Melendez usually carries his son on his arms.
"You know, all the time, he carries him here. Thank God he wasn't with the baby," said Galdamez.
Witnesses and police said no one saw where the bullet came from and nobody is sure why it happened.
"Why you have to shoot somebody only to celebrate New Year's? It's stupid," said Rudy Aponte, who witnessed the shooting.
Melendez believes his survival is actually Divine Providence.
God, his family says, stopped the bullet to bring Melendez safely to a New Year.
"God saved him," Galdamez said.