WHILE THOUSANDS of people were enjoying the beauty of the Fireworks on the Waterfront in downtown Kingston at the stroke of midnight, to ring in the New Year, two persons were left in shock after being struck by a bullet.

"I felt like someone had chopped off my hands," said one of the victims, who requested anonymity.

The two, a male and a female, who are members of the East Queen Street Baptist Church, had just exited the church at the end of the watchnight service when the incident happened.

"I am very sympathetic and wished it never happened," Reverend Roy Henry, who is the senior pastor for the church, told The Gleaner.

Although he suffered only minor injuries, the man was taken to the hospital where he received treatment for his wounds.

Went to hospital

The woman went to hospital yesterday after discovering that her hand was swollen and discoloured.

The man was struck above the elbow on his right hand after the bullet grazed the woman's fingers and her right arm.

"I don't even remember my reaction," the man told The Gleaner. He added that it took him about five minutes to realise what had happened.

However, despite the misfortune, the dedicated Christian said the incident would not stop his tradition of attending watchnight service every New Year's Eve.

In St James, two persons were shot, one fatally, in separate gun salutes early New Year's morning.

Dead is 22-year-old labourer Kemar Mandison of Salt Spring, while a 26-year-old male shopkeeper has been hospitalised in serious condition.