Store Employees React To Downtown Stray Bullet

It was business as usual on the streets of downtown El Paso Wednesday.

People lined the streets with shopping bags in hand.

But on Tuesday morning, a woman shopping for cake molds on the 200 block of East Overland was hit in the leg by a stray bullet.

El Paso police say that bullet came from Juarez, Mexico.

The shooting happened in front of Seven-Seventeen, a women’s clothing store.

ABC-7 spoke with a an employee who said she saw 48-year-old Maria Romero being treated by emergency crews moments after she was struck.

That employee, who did not want to be identified, said shoppers shouldn’t stop visiting downtown El Paso because of the incident, because it could happen anywhere.

“I don’t think they need to worry about anything. Car accidents happen, someone walks out onto the street and falls down. Anything can happen,” she said.

Not everyone agrees.

Raul Lopez, owner of Mr. Hat Corporation, said he was not surprised that a stray bullet from Juarez ended up in downtown El Paso.

“This scares people away and then there’s no flow of customers coming through,” said Lopez.

There were reports of possibly a second bullet that landed in another area of downtown.

El Paso police spokesman Sgt. Chris Mears told ABC-7 that is currently not under investigation.