Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

Projectile hits woman at Vinoy on Fourth

Police suspect a bullet hit and seriously injured her as she awaited a fireworks display while near the pool.

By LEONORA LaPETER
Published July 6, 2004

ST. PETERSBURG - A woman was struck and seriously injured by a projectile as she celebrated July Fourth at the Renaissance Vinoy Resort, and police think there's a good chance it was a bullet someone shot into the air.

Lori Collis, 42, of Oldsmar was standing with her family on the second-floor pool deck of the Vinoy on Sunday, waiting for St. Petersburg's fireworks show to begin just before 9 p.m. when a falling projectile struck her in the right shoulder and traveled to her stomach, police said.

She underwent surgery Sunday night and was in serious condition at Bayfront Medical Center on Monday. Surgeons were unable to remove the projectile, police said.

They said it is unlikely she was shot by anyone at the Vinoy.

"We have probably a dozen witnesses there at the pool area, and no one saw a muzzle blast," said St. Petersburg police Lt. Joe Jesiolkiewic. "From the direction it came from, it would have come from south or west out over the Vinoy Basin or the marina, maybe someone in a boat."

Between 8,000 and 10,000 people had gathered along the downtown waterfront to watch the fireworks, but Collis was the only one injured. Police are asking anyone with information call them at (727) 893-7164.

Jesiolkiewic said this type of gunfire happens more often than people think.

For the last two years in a row on New Year's Eve, residents of a Gulfport retirement community contended with someone who shot bullets in the air, slicing through carports, roofs and cars. And in 2000, a 4-year-old girl was struck in the foot by a bullet that seemed to come out of nowhere in Tampa's Seminole Heights neighborhood, where she celebrated New Year's Eve with her family.

"People who own guns think they can shoot them off in the air without any consequences, and ninth-grade physical science teaches you that if you shoot a bullet up in the air, unless it escapes the Earth's atmosphere, it's going to come down somewhere," said Jesiolkiewic, police commander of the fireworks event.

Members of Collis' family declined to comment about the incident.

"Obviously, this is very unfortunate, an almost freak thing, and hopefully police will be able to narrow it down and figure out who was the perpetrator," said Russell Bond, general manager of the Vinoy.

[Last modified July 5, 2004, 20:22:06]