A California teen is crediting his Racer headset with saving his life after he says a stray bullet pierced his bedroom window and bounced off the device as he was playing online with friends.
Jonathan Gonzalez, 18, told CBS Los Angeles that he was up just after midnight on April 1 and on his PlayStation when he sensed something hit his skull. “It felt like if you’re wearing a bike helmet and someone just smacks the top of your head,” he he said.
His parents are still struggling to come to terms with what happened, they said.
“It’s still a trigger for me to process the thought that I could’ve lost my son,” said Janet Popoca, the teen’s mother. “We were asleep and if it did hurt him, we would not have known until we woke up hours later.”
The family lives in the Torrance area of Los Angeles County.
Gonzalez displayed the headset, and pointed to divots where he said the bullet struck. The spent round bounced off his headset, ricocheted off a wall and around his room before landing on his bed, he said.
Los Angeles Police Department officers collected the bullet, the family said, but couldn’t locate a shooter.
“If it wasn’t for these on my head, it probably would’ve went through,” Gonzalez said.
“Thinking about it for the first week made me sick,” he said.
The avid gamer said he received a replacement headset for free from Racer.