In the pre-dawn hours of March 4, Eric Gan was asleep in his Fresno, California apartment when five bullets tore through the walls and windows. Stray gunfire from someone at a nearby party had struck his apartment, punching holes through the drywall and a ceiling fan. One came through Gan’s bedroom wall, just a few feet from where he’d been sleeping, only to be stopped by his gaming monitor.
Fresno police eventually determined that nobody in the apartment was targeted by the gunshots, and thankfully, no one was hurt – even the monitor that stopped one of the bullets still works. It’s an MSI Optix G27C2 curved LED 27” model, and when Gan hopped on Twitter and Reddit to discuss the incident the next morning, he thanked MSI and posted a photo of his still-functioning monitor sitting in front of a puncture hole in the wall.
MSI reached out to Gan, expressing relief that he and his roommates were unharmed and offering to replace the monitor. Gan’s tweet went viral, and now MSI has pledged to donate $10,000 to an anti-violence charity in light of the incident, which was covered by the North Fresno Fox affiliate KMPH.
Here’s Gan’s initial tweet:
House just got shot by random stranger from the street. Msi monitor got hit and blocked the bullet and still functioning. What a day.. shout out to @msiUSA @msitweets pic.twitter.com/IhwVH2BO0O
— Eric Gan 颜 (@ericgan98) March 4, 2019
And here’s MSI’s follow-up:
To all gamers, we appreciate all your blessings to @ericgan98 his survival after random gunfire. With Eric’s encouragement, now, MSI promises to donate $1 for every retweet this tweet receives up to $10K towards anti-violence charity. #BulletProofMonitor #OptixMonitor
— MSI Gaming (@msitweets) March 8, 2019
The post quickly cleared 10,000 retweets, and so MSI will be making that $10,000 USD donation.
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In an amusing side note to the story, in Gan’s initial photos of the scene, his MSI monitor displayed a Razer background, which prompted Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan to offer a lighthearted comment, along with well-wishes:
Well I hope the @Razer wallpaper helped in some way to stop the bullets…;) But seriously though, good to know you're OK.
— Min-Liang Tan (@minliangtan) March 6, 2019
We’re glad to know Gan and his roommates are all okay, too. And while the incident is certainly a testament to MSI’s build quality, stopping bullets isn’t something gaming monitors should ever have to do.
Top image credit: Eric Gan, via Twitter