A Cape Girardeau man said a bullet fired into a home on South Hanover Street on Wednesday afternoon missed his head by the slimmest of margins.

"I was asleep when the bullet came in," said Joe McGowan, who was sleeping in the home of his niece at 403 S. Hanover St. "It went right over my head."

McGowan said he and his niece were resting before they left for work in Jackson when four gunshots were fired about 4:45 p.m.

"Somebody said they heard four shots," he said. "One came through the front window where the Christmas tree is, and then it went through the bedroom door where I was sleeping and stopped in the wall. It just went right over my head."

The bullet that came through the window could have led to tragic consequences for the children who reside in the home, McGowan said.

"A relative of mine who was in the house told me that the young kids had just finished putting presents under the tree. If they had stayed a little longer, one of them might have been hit."

According to a release from Darin Hickey, a spokesman for the Cape Girardeau Police Department, officers arrived at the home on South Hanover Street and at another home in the 900 block of Good Hope Street where a bullet had been shot through a storm door. No one was injured at either location, the release said, and witnesses have stated two men had been arguing and each began shooting. The case still is being investigated.

McGowan said he believes the home on South Hanover Street was in the line of fire of the intended target.

"This house was not what they were shooting at," he said. "Everybody knows us, and we don't get involved in that stuff. I think they were shooting at the house next door."

McGowan said shootings on South Hanover Street are nothing new.

"It happens a lot," he said. "It's what goes on around here. But if you're going to play that game, please don't shoot innocent people."

klewis@semissourian.com

388-3635

Pertinent address: 403 S. Hanover St., Cape Girardeau, MO

900 block of Good Hope Street, Cape Girardeau, MO