Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms expressed her gratitude on social media as tragedy nearly struck her family when a stray bullet hit a family member’s home and reportedly just missed her nephew’s bed.
Bottoms wrote a message on Twitter that a stray bullet went through the home of a family member and landed in her nephew’s room on Saturday evening. She also urged gun owners to be responsible when firing their weapons.
“What goes up must come down. Someone fired a gun in the air, likely miles away, and it came thru the house into my nephew’s room. He was in the bed inches away. We are grateful that God protected him. If you have a gun, please act responsibly. This could be you or your child,” Bottoms wrote on Twitter.
Bottoms said that the gun was fired into the air, likely miles away, according to WSB-TV. She also didn’t provide any details of where her family member’s home was located.
Bottoms served as the 60th mayor of Atlanta from 2018 to 2022. Before becoming mayor, the graduate of Florida A&M University served on the Atlanta City Council from 2010 to 2018.
Her family is no stranger to gun violence, like many families in America. In 2014, she lost her 18-year-old nephew Darius Bottoms to gun violence. He was killed after he was mistaken for a rival gang member while driving down Legacy Drive in southwest Atlanta.
The three men responsible for his death were all convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison days before Bottoms was sworn into office in 2017, according to WXIA-TV 11Alive.
His murder was featured on Oxygen’s “The Real Murders of Atlanta” and TV One’s “ATL Homicide.”
According to Gun Violence Archive, at least 25 teenagers in Georgia died due to gun violence, and nine died in the metro Atlanta area so far this year. The site also showed that 491 teenagers in America have died due to gun violence and another 1,209 were injured so far this year.
In 2022, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp made it legal for individuals to carry their guns in public without a permit.
