By Antonio Planas and Maggie Vespa -
NBC News
KANSAS CITY, Kansas — A 10-year-old boy who was shot this week during the Kansas City Chiefs' victory parade said a bullet missed his lungs by inches and that it's a "miracle" he's alive.
Samuel Arellano said Friday that he was celebrating the team's Super Bowl victory at Wednesday's parade with his grandfather, uncle and cousin when the fun turned into chaos.
A fight broke out just after the rally ended and a crowd began running toward the fifth-grade boy.
What happened next is a bit confusing, Samuel explained.
He remembers walking toward a trash can (something he learned in active shooter training at school) and two or three shots rang out as he was pushed to the ground and stomped on.
Samuel Arellano with his mother, Aby Arellano.Maggie Vespa/NBC News
The next thing he could remember was a sharp pain in his right side: “Like something burned.
Like a knife burned with a lighter, like someone stabbed me.”
But the pain was not overwhelming and there was no visible blood on the red Patrick Mahomes jersey he was wearing, Samuel recalled.
His family returned home 20 minutes after the shooting and later
discovered a gunshot wound when he took off his shirt.
Samuel said that seeing the injury made his family cry, but he tried to remain firm.
[The origin of the Kansas City shooting was a dispute between two gangs and their bullets sowed mourning]
“If I looked at him, I knew I was going to cry... a lot,” he said.
However, the boy was moved to tears when doctors told him he narrowly escaped serious injury because the bullet, which hit a bone, missed his lungs by inches.
"I started to cry.
But I was happy because if it had hit my lungs, it would have been a different situation.”
The near accident was a “miracle
,” Samuel added.
Aby Arellano, 34, indicated that when she saw her youngest son's gunshot wound she felt something that no mother, especially of a young child, is prepared for.
“It's a pain that I wouldn't wish on anyone,” he said.
Samuel explained that since he was released from the hospital on Wednesday night, he has had trouble sleeping.
“I have memories of the shooting and then I wake up crying,” he said.
In total, 23 people were shot, including nine children.
One of the victims, popular radio DJ Lisa López Galván, died from her injuries.
“I have flashbacks of the shooting and then I wake up crying.”
Samuel Arellano, 10 years old, shooting survivor
Two teenagers have been charged in the shooting, but Samuel believes more needs to be done.
“They should fix the laws” on guns, the 10-year-old said.
Aby Arellano said that looking at the Mahomes shirt that her son was wearing when he was shot does not make her sad;
rather, it makes her happy.
Number 15 not only has a bullet hole, but also a dark shoe print where someone had stepped on Samuel's back.
[The only fatal victim of the Kansas shooting is remembered with a vigil]
“It's almost like the shirt saved his life,” Aby Arellano added.
“It is my son's salvation.
“It is something incredible that nothing serious has happened to him.”
The woman said that because it is made of thick fabric, it is possible that the bullet, which passed through her right sleeve, ricocheted enough to hit a bone and not her lungs.
As for Samuel, who has been a “big” Chiefs fan “since he was little,” he dreams of a career in American football.
He wants to follow in the footsteps of his hero, Mahomes, and play quarterback, or maybe tight end like Travis Kelce.
On Friday, the Chiefs announced an emergency response fund, aptly titled KC Strong, in partnership with United Way of Greater Kansas City to support shooting victims and their families.
Donations will also go to first aid services, violence prevention and mental health services, the team explained on their Instagram account.
In honor of its release, the Chiefs, the Hunt Family Foundation and the NFL are donating $200,000 to the KC Strong Foundation “to ensure we are helping support victims and first responders in the immediate aftermath of Wednesday's tragedy,” the team said. release.