By all accounts, Ronald Richard, 68, of Covington, should be dead.

Driving his John Deere tractor Saturday, Richard was suddenly thumped with a pain “like a hard punch jumped up” and bit him in the heart.

He bent over and grasped his sweater. Then he took it off to get a closer look. A .45-caliber bullet casing tumbled out, clattered onto the tractor and fell on the ground.

Ronald Richard shows a hole in his shirt caused by a stray bullet. (Staff Photo by Matthew Penix)

He’d just been shot.

It was a stray bullet, and it tore through his sweater, leaving a 1/2-inch hole, where it entered into the top center pocket of his coveralls and hit his cell phone.

The bullet, coming in at a 45-degree angle, busted the phone in two, but the impact halted its trajectory just enough to save Richard’s life

“It’s a miracle,” he said Tuesday. “Normally I put the phone in my inside pocket, but for some reason that day was different. Now I know why.”

Richard, a computer systems analyst who was alone at home at the time, didn’t hear a gunshot over the tractor’s roar and at first didn’t know what hit him. Part of him thought the tractor spewed some gravel. But being in the driver’s seat, he thought it impossible, he said.

“I was shocked,” he said. “I just thought, ‘How did this not kill me?’”

After calling 911 and assuring a dispatcher several times that “although I was shot in the chest I was fine,” Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived to investigate.

“He’s extremely fortunate,” said Capt. George Bonnett, Sheriff’s Office spokesman. “And with Thanksgiving around the corner he definitely has something to be thankful for. I’ve never heard of anything like this before.”

Neither had Mindy, Richard’s wife.

Mindy, who was out running errands, returned to their house Saturday afternoon to find three Sheriff’s Office deputies parked in her driveway.

She wondered if Richard had a heart attack or flipped the tractor and was injured. She was confused.

Then Richard told her, “I was shot.”

“You can’t tease me like this,” she said. “But then I noticed he looked stricken. I burst into tears.”

The pair immediately remembered a spate of gunshots, some single, others rapid fire automatics, in the nearby woods that surround their Lee Road north of Covingtonhome and many others less than a quarter mile in all directions. They’ve always thought it was hunters or gun enthusiasts taking target practice, a noise they’ve heard intermittently for eight years, ever since they moved from Metairie to the Northshore in 2000.

Not against guns or hunters, the couple never reported the shots and just thought it was part of the territory “because we live in the country.” They routinely see hunters park their cars at the intersection of Lee Road and North Fitzmorris Road and walk down a power line corridor through the woods and behind their home. In the past couple months, Sheriff’s Office deputies have fielded “two or three” complaints of nearby gunshots, Bonnett said. But in recent days, the shots grew louder, closer, likely the result of deer season opening.

“I always thought one day a bullet would hit the house, whiz by us, but never did I think one would hit me,” Richard said.

The couple decided to tell their story Tuesday in an effort to teach hunters and gun enthusiasts how dangerous shooting near homes can be.

“We’re not against guns. My family used to hunt. We just want to tell as many people as possible to be careful,” Mindy said. “And for them to be aware that people live here. We could be planning a funeral, but for the grace of God, he’s alive.”

The couple this week also sent a letter to St. Tammany Parish District 2 Councilman Chris Cooper urging for a harsher gun ordinance. They hope to increase jail time and fines for anyone firing a weapon in directions of nearby homes.

Cooper said he planned to meet with an attorney to discuss solutions.

“I’m going to do anything I can to solve this,” he said. “There are a lot of homes in that area, and if it wouldn’t have been Richard it would be someone else. Somehow we’ve got to control this or get it stopped.”

For now, the couple is just happy to be alive. They just returned to live in their Hurricane Katrina-ravaged home and are still unpacking mounds of boxes and knickknacks. They just finished remodeling their kitchen. And now, ever since the accident, Richard’s son is calling home more often.

“We’re going to have a happy Thanksgiving this year,” Mindy said. “We’ve got a lot to be thankful for.”