Freak accident leaves man with bullet fragment lodged behind his eye after Chatsworth shooting

CHATSWORTH, Calif. () — A freak accident in Chatsworth left a man with a bullet fragment lodged behind his eye after another man opened fire.

The incident occurred Saturday as 25-year-old Ryan Trujillo was serving food at a birthday party that also featured a horse parade.

According to Trujillo, a man pulled out a gun and began shooting toward the ground near a horse.

“He must’ve had too much to drink,” Trujillo said. “He pulled out his pistol and popped off about five rounds. I turned to see what was going on with the commotion, and when I turned, the round hit me right here in the eyebrow.”

Trujillo initially thought he’d been hit by debris. Then he went to a hospital.

In an interview with 7, he recalled a doctor telling him: “‘You have a bullet in your head. It stopped within a centimeter of hitting your brain, and it’s sitting on your optical nerve.'”

Trujillo says multiple hospitals are concerned about removing the bullet fragment from his head because of its location, leaving him in limbo about treatment.

A friend launched a GoFundMe campaign to support Trujillo’s recovery, now that he can no longer work as a horse farrier.

Trujillo said the shooter was one of his own clients.

“I don’t think I have any words for that person,” Trujillo said. “I don’t know what I could say to him.”