Owner: Stray Bullet Kills Horse During New Year's Eve Celebrations

JURUPA VALLEY (CBSLA.com) — A Jurupa Valley family is heart-broken and devastated after a stray bullet struck and killed their beloved horse during new year's celebrations, according to the family.

Jessee Goss got the 30-year-old horse named 'Lucky' when she was four years old.

Goss, 34, now married with three children, said Lucky stood by her through thick and thin. "He was my guardian angel and my best friend and a parent when my mom was at work. He was everything to me."

Goss' mother, Danette Depew, who works at a local veterinarian clinic, found Lucky dead in his stall on new year's day. The family believes Lucky was killed by a bullet that came from someone shooting his or her gun in the air on new year's eve.

"Every person who met that horse loved that horse," said Depew.

"If I had been standing in the stall or my mom or one of my children, it could have been one of us. It's bad enough that it was my horse but to think had it been a child," Goss said.

The family has filed a police report with the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.

Goss said Lucky was more than just a horse to her, he was her hero whose life was taken too soon. "We're just devastated. I mean Lucky has always been there. He's been the only constant in my life. My whole life he's the only thing that's always been there," Goss cried.

Lucky "is dead because some jerk fired a gun in city limits against the law," Goss posted on her Facebook page.