A 25-year-old horse farrier is unable to work or fully see out of one eye after a stray bullet ricocheted off the ground and lodged behind his eyeball during a birthday party in Chatsworth. Bryan Trujillo was catering the party, which included a horse trail ride, when a fellow guest allegedly began firing a pistol into the ground before the round bounced up and struck him.
Trujillo told KTLA that he and a friend were standing about 8 to 10 feet from the shooter on September 12 when the man, who Trujillo said had too much to drink, fired the gun at the ground and then fired again. He said he heard a couple of gunshots and felt a powerful impact, initially believing he had been hit by a rock. Doctors later confirmed the fragment lodged behind his eye, roughly one centimeter from his brain, sitting between the eye and brain on his optic nerve.
Chaos and First Aid as the Shooter Fled
According to the same KTLA report, another party guest was seen dancing with a horse that appeared distressed around the time of the shooting, and the shooter fled the scene immediately afterward. Party attendees rushed to provide Trujillo with first aid as he experienced persistent bleeding from the wound. Trujillo said his eye was not torn to bits, but he currently cannot see out of it and has filed a report with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
Trujillo now takes medications for daily pain and told the station he experiences a throbbing headache once the medication wears off. As a farrier, his livelihood depends on physical stamina and precise vision to shoe horses safely — work he cannot perform without his sight restored, according to a GoFundMe page organized by Daniel Lascano on September 14, 2026, to help cover Trujillo's urgent surgery, medical bills and time away from work.
Doctors Split on Whether to Operate
Doctors treating Trujillo reportedly hold mixed opinions about whether to remove the bullet fragment. Some have advised him to rest and wait for inflammation and swelling to decrease, saying the fragment might simply remain in place, while others believe it could eventually be removed. That split reflects the challenges of treating eye trauma involving metallic foreign bodies.
Those considerations appear central to why Trujillo's doctors have not settled on a single course of action while he waits, medicated and unable to see out of one eye, for swelling to subside.
What the Shooter Could Face Under State Law
The unidentified shooter has not been arrested, but discharging a firearm in a grossly negligent manner that could injure or kill someone is a wobbler offense under California Penal Code Section 246.3, punishable as a misdemeanor with up to a year in county jail or as a felony carrying up to three years in state prison, according to FindLaw. Legal guidance from the Shouse Law Group clarifies that the statute requires proof of an intentional trigger pull rather than an accidental discharge, but prosecutors do not need to show the shooter meant to hit a person when a ricochet causes injury — intentionally firing toward the ground is enough to satisfy the law's willful element even if striking a bystander was unintended.
Why Horses Were at the Party
The party included a horse trail ride, and Trujillo was working as a professional farrier.
A separate August statement reported a 27 percent year-over-year decline in homicides. It is not the only recent instance of gunfire disrupting a Valley house party: in April 2023, a dispute outside a gathering in nearby Granada Hills escalated into shooting that left a 17-year-old girl injured, as previously reported by Hoodline.
For now, Trujillo is left waiting on his doctors and hoping the swelling around the fragment subsides enough to clarify his path forward, while the person who fired the shot that changed his life remains unidentified.
