Amanda McGarran says she and her boyfriend Mario Jovanovski were in Whitehall for the city’s 4th of July fireworks Sunday night when suddenly it was chaos.

A 21-year-old Whitehall man is recovering after a bullet from celebratory gunfire grazed his skull and came dangerously close to his brain.

Amanda McGarran says she and her boyfriend Mario Jovanovski were in Whitehall for the city’s 4th of July fireworks Sunday night when suddenly it was chaos. Amanda says a swarm of people gathered just scattered.

“Like a few hundred. They were just running like down the middle of the park,” she said.

But just as things calmed down, she says the fireworks started up and masked the sound of a single gunshot fired in the air by someone in the crowd.

When the bullet came down it grazed the side of Mario’s head.

“Right when the fireworks started he grabbed his head and was like 'I’ve just been shot' and I’m like 'What are you talking about?' and he fell to the floor and draggegd me down with him,” she said.

Mario’s brother Renato Jovanovski says he hopes the gunman’s foolish mistake is a lesson to others.

“Just don’t shoot--especially in the air. It could hit a kid,” he said.

Pictures show Mario from his hospital bed smiling and giving a thumbs up.

Although he’s expected to fully recover, his family says they’ll never attend fireworks in Whitehall again.

“I will not go or him or any of us. We already discussed that. I’d rather watch that from the condo or the house,” Renato Jovanovski said.