Senior Communications strategist with the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) Dennis Brooks has condemned the reckless behaviour of a few people who continue to celebrate the new year by firing their licensed firearms in the air.

According to Brooks, “at least four people, including an elderly woman asleep in her bed, were injured as a result of illegal new year’s gun salutes”.

Brooks said that personal responsibility must be exercised as this reckless act has seemingly become the norm each year.

“Every year you talk and every year it’s the same thing. And yet, it’s always someone else’s problem to fix,” he said.

Brooks’s condemnation follows an incident at a new year’s eve party in western Jamaica that resulted in a patron being injured.

The patron, a 37-year-old man who requested anonymity from the Jamaica Observer West, stated that both he and his wife were excited to attend the event, though he would usually ring in the new year at a watch night church service.

He said while the countdown to midnight was taking place he felt something hit him in his leg.

“It felt like somebody forcefully threw a stone, and I bent down to rub the area. I remember saying that this nuh feel right and my leg started to feel funny,” he told the Observer West.

“My wife started rubbing it for me. She then turned on the flashlight on her phone and that’s when we realised there was blood. I had on jeans pants, so the blood was seeping through and I started hopping trying to get back to the vehicle.”

“At that time I didn’t know that I had gotten shot. It was when we stopped again and looked at the pants and saw a hole. I figured at that time that I must have gotten shot.”

The couple drove to a private medical facility and was told to head to hospital where a doctor confirmed that he was shot in the back of the knee.

“I did the X-ray and… the doctor confirmed that there was a bullet in the leg, but luckily it didn’t fracture any bones and no major veins were hit. She said that I was lucky,” he said.

He told the Observer West that he is expecting to have surgery soon to remove the bullet.

Though disappointed, the man is grateful.

“It could have been worse, so I am giving thanks for my life. I am happy that the bone was not shattered at the kneecap because that would have been a different situation. I would have probably not been able to walk properly,” he told the Observer West.

“I will be fine. I am not feeling any pain now because of the painkillers, but there is a little swelling around the area,” he added.