Bullet Pierces Roof of Valencia Home

VALENCIA —  Roger LeBlanc found an unwelcome intruder in his home early New Year’s morning--a bullet that had pierced his roof and come to rest on the bed of his pet beagle.

“When I got home and turned on the lights, I noticed some acoustic material from the ceiling was on the blanket,” LeBlanc said. “I looked up and saw a hole in the ceiling, and thought maybe there was something in the attic trying to gnaw its way down. But then I saw the actual bullet lying on the bed.”

The bullet had been fired from a large-caliber handgun, according to sheriff’s deputies, who are investigating the incident as possibly the result of a New Year’s Eve, sky-bound shooting.

No one was reported hurt in either the Santa Clarita or San Fernando valleys from stray bullets during the annual New Year’s Eve fusillade of celebratory gunfire.

Most other areas in the county were also relatively calm, although the annual ritual remains intractable enough that at least two people were injured and more than 30 arrested for firing their weapons into the night sky.

The rat-a-tat-tat of gunshots at midnight was a bare echo of the roar that reached a crescendo on New Year’s holidays of about a decade ago in some neighborhoods.

“It was nice and quiet last night, just random-gunfire-type stuff,” said one officer from the LAPD’s 77th Street Division in South-Central. “In the past, it was like ongoing war.”

Not all regions reported a decline, though, particularly those patrolled by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Sheriff’s stations said they received 649 calls of shots being fired, nearly double the number of a year ago. Two people suffered minor injuries, compared to three who were injured a year ago in the sheriff’s territories.

All 26 suspects arrested by the deputies this year were booked on felony charges, evidence that authorities are trying to send a message that random gunfire will be dealt with harshly, said Deputy Elsa Avila, a spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Department.

After the reckless shooting caused several deaths in 1987 and 1988, local officials launched an intensive campaign to curb the practice. This year, bus benches and television commercials proclaimed: “What goes up, will come down. Save a life. No gunfire this New Year’s Eve.”

Sgt. J.D. Allen of the LAPD’s Southeast Division said the ongoing public education campaign is finally paying off.

“There has been a drastic reduction in the amount of gunfire,” Allen said. “Mostly, people didn’t know how dangerous it is. Now, I think more of them know.”

Even though the number of shots fired seemed to be on the decline, it’s one New Year’s tradition that can be truly unnerving.

LeBlanc had returned home shortly after midnight from a party when he found the bullet in his house. Then he heard more gunshots ringing through the night air.

“It really makes your heart race thinking about it,” he said, “especially when you open your door and go in your backyard and there’s still shooting going on.”

Times staff writer Nieson Himmel contributed to this story.