Time: Sunday 31, 2014

Place: Downtown Beirut

The Occasion: Celebrating Speaker Berri’s speech

The victim: A toddler … Anthony Henry Saad

Anthony’s family, akin to any other, sought to have some healthy, outdoor fun around the Lebanese capital. Yet, little did they know that their little escapade at Beirut Waterfront’s Beirut by Bike area would end up with an incident that could have liquidated their precious toddler.

A stray bullet that was fired as part of celebratory gunfire that coincided with Speaker Nabih Berri’s speech commemorating Imam as-Sader’s disappearance, had apparently found its way into the soft, tender infant flesh. The year-and-eight-month old boy who was with his parents at 20:10 last Sunday enjoying a fun-filled Sunday, received a pellet that “pierced Anthony’s liver and lodged into his abdomen,” the child’s father, Henry Saad said.

“[people] ought to learn that they should act responsibly when bearing arms and be aware of the perils of such actions. Their own sons could have been shot and we could have lost our child […],” Henry Saad said, adding that “arms are for war, not for celebration.”

“It was close, but we pulled through thank God!” he concluded.