Police are encouraging people to celebrate New Year’s Eve without firing guns.
It’s a tradition for many on the holiday, but it can be a deadly one.
“It affects me every year,” Rachel Chafins said. “It was horrible.”
New Year’s Eve 1994 on the porch where Chafins now lives, her 11-year-old niece, Glenda, was accidentally killed.
“They went on the front porch and he let her shoot the gun off, it exploded and the metal went in and killed her,” Chafins said.
A complete accident that cost a young girl her life and devastated a family.
That's why billboards are going up all over town warning about celebratory gunfire. Columbus police don't want to respond to any more tragedies.
“Celebratory gunfire is illegal, it's unsafe and it's endangering our kids,” Deputy Chief Ken Kuebler said.
Police have teamed up with local pastors to get the word out to the community about not firing guns on New Year's.
They get calls every year from worried residents. One came in last year from the home where Thomas Rothwell lives.
“You never know, stray bullets, you never know where they'll end up,” Rothwell said.
That's the fear. Rothwell says it was friends in the home who called 911. And there's real reason to worry.
“In the short time we've been here, there's been two shootings, one right behind our house and one across the street here,” Rothwell said.
Police say stray bullets can travel miles, accidentally pierce through homes and can be fatal even falling from the sky.
Chafins knows enough now to steer clear of any firearms on New Year’s Eve.
“We're just staying in, doors shut,” she said.
Police want to stress that it's illegal to randomly fire guns. Just because other people are doing it, does not mean it's legal.