Texas dad of three shot dead by stray bullet fired during New Year’s celebration: family
Javier Rivera, 43, was out in front of his Houston home early Thursday watching fireworks when a bullet lodged in his head, leaving him dead on the sidewalk in front of his bewildered wife. Authorities are searching for whomever may have fired off the fatal shot.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Friday, January 2, 2015, 10:19 AM
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GOFUNDME.COMJavier Rivera, left, was a married father of three who was out in front of his house watching fireworks early Thursday when celebratory gunfire struck and killed him.
A Houston father of three crumpled to the ground dead in front of his family after he was struck in the head by a stray bullet as people celebrated the New Year last Wednesday into Thursday.
The devastating tragedy left Javier Rivera dead on a sidewalk as bewildered bystanders rushed to help, without even knowing what had happened.
No one even heard the gunshot while watching fireworks as Rivera suddenly collapsed to the ground, struck down in his own front yard along Eastlake Drive at Theta Street.
"I never could have imagined this would happen," his wife, Erica Rivera, told KHOU-TV."He was standing right next to me and he fell."
KTRKErica Rivera was standing by her 43-year-old husband’s side when he crumpled to the ground, shot dead by a stray bullet that landed in his head.
The startling sight sent one man running over to help - to no avail.
"All of a sudden, my grandkids saw him falling backwards and he fell down and then he didn't move," neighbor Gloria Patterson told the news station. "So my grandson, who is certified to CPR, went over and started CPR and stayed with him until the ambulance came. And he never regained any movement or anything."
Once Erica Rivera saw the blood gushing from her husband’s head, she realized the bangs and explosions from the fireworks likely masked the noise of gunfire, KTRK-TV reported.
KTRKBystanders were shocked as Rivera suddenly was struck dead, blood gushing from his head from what authorities later learned was a gunshot wound.
Family members said Javier Rivera was a good, happy man who didn’t deserve his bizarre, freak death.
"He was smiling and laughing, you know, a nice person, just a hardworking man," his brother-in-law, Charles Cain, told KHOU. "Now we're gonna have to bury somebody this year, you know. Through God's help, that's how we are gonna get through it."
A family member has created a Go Fund Me page, raising approximately $3,500 in the day since Rivera’s untimely death.
KTRKCharles Cain said his brother-in-law was a happy, hard-working family man shot dead in a bizarre accident outside his Houston home.
Now, police are searching for whomever may have shot off the round that took the family man’s life.
"If people would just remember don't shoot guns,” Patterson, the family’s neighbor, told KHOU. “You know once it comes up, it's got to come down. I hope that this will be something that will help other people that will not do this in the future.”
