‘Babe, call 911’: Bullet misses sleeping children, hits pregnant woman

AURORA, Colo. — A pregnant Colorado woman was released from a hospital after she was wounded in her home by a stray bullet that barely missed her children.

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According to the Aurora Police Department, the shooting occurred early Thursday in the 900 block of South Joplin Way.

Kendall Heinold and her family were awakened by the gunfire, KDVR-TV reported.

“It was just a really loud noise, and then a lot of pain on my left side,” Heinold, 27, told the television station. “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, who is 16 weeks pregnant, was taken to an area hospital, where doctors found a bullet in her shoulder, according to the television station. She said her doctors decided to leave the bullet in her shoulder, rather than risk using anesthesia for surgery.

Aurora police believe that the bullet may have traveled hundreds of feet in the air. The bullet traveled over a greenbelt that backs up to the family’s home, police said.

Heinold said she later discovered a bullet hole in the room of her 5- and 6-year-old children, KDVR reported.

“The bullet had come through their bedroom first,” Heinold told the televison station. “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. 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.”

A neighbor’s security camera recorded at least eight shots fired, KDVR reported.

“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 told the television station. “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, considering, but still scary.”