The social media star, who goes by Eixchelb to her 4.3 million TikTok followers, claims her stepfather’s “shot missed by centimeters” as she details the alleged attack — and shares graphic photos of the aftermath.
A social media influencer is alive and thanking God after a terrifying incident involving her own stepfather, whom she alleges broke into their Florida apartment and shot at her.
Luis Damas, 64, is now facing one charge of attempted murder, two counts each of burglary with assault or battery, false imprisonment with a deadly weapon, and aggravated assault with a firearm. Additional counts of attempted evidence tampering and felony battery have also been brought.
According to Eixchel Berroteran, who goes by Eixchelb online for her 4.3 million TikTok followers, Damas and her mother separated seven months ago, before Damas broke into their home “saying he was going to kill me” because “I didn’t want him and my mom to be together.”
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Eixchelb’s Account
In a lengthy caption posted in Spanish for her 717,000 Instagram followers, Berroteran detailed her alleged experience on the night of August 21, claiming Damas waited at the apartment door for her mother and pushed his way in.
Accompanying her message was a slideshow of images from the alleged altercation, including bloody images and video of Berroteran’s hand, where she was allegedly shot; her mother’s torso, with what appears to be bite marks and bruising; and damage in the house.
She credits her mother for saving her life, writing (as translated by Google Translate), “He pulled out a gun pointing at my mom and saying he was going to kill me. He pushed her in the living room and entered my room. He pointed the gun at me.”
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Berroteran writes that she initially thought to hide under the bed before crawling toward him “screaming for him to stop.” She writes that “at that moment I heard the shot that left me stunned; but my mom, who was already behind him, wrestled him so the shot didn’t hit me.”
“That night… the worst of my entire life. God gave me another chance. When the shot missed by CENTIMETERS… I was stunned, in shock and scared to think taht those would be my last moments of my life,” she wrote, per translation, “at that moment God gave me the strength to stand up and defend myself with my mother.”
According to Berroteran’s account, she and her mother were together able to push Damas into the kitchen and onto the ground. There, she claims that as he tried to fight them off, “he bit my mother and pulled my head very hard.”
Amid alleged threats from Damas, the women told one neighbor who knocked on the door to go as Damas allegedly told them “he had contacts in the police and that if we reported … he had thug friends.”
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Mom’s Account
The probable cause arrest affidavit for this case appears to corroborate much of Berroteran’s story, though it does not name her, according to Law & Crime.
In that account, Damas’ wife told police she was with a friend when she heard a knock on the door. She said that she told Damas she’d call him later, per the document, but when she walked her friend out of the apartment, he was still there.
According to the papers, Damas asked her where their daughter was, saying that she was the reason they couldn’t be together. He then allegedly pushed his way into the apartment and pulled out a gun, per the affidavit, and made his way to his daughter’s room.
The report states that she attempted to hide under her mattress as “the defendant stated, ‘I’m going to kill you’ and fired one shot.” The affidavit states the wife then jumped on Damas to try and take the gun away.
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The police report corroborates allegations that Damas bit his wife “all over her body,” adding that she “grabbed a wine bottle from the kitchen and began to strike” per WPLG, before she and her daughter were eventually able to get him to put the gun away.
While they were able to get him calm enough to talk, per police, Damas “kept a hold of (his stepdaughter) by the hair while sitting on the couch, not allowing her to exit” the apartment.
He then allegedly forced his wife to “clean up the scene,” per affidavit, before they assured him they would not call the police and escorting him out the door.
The woman says she did not call police right away, per the report, because her husband threatened that if she did, he would “have them killed by hitmen that he knew.” After going to the hospital to treat their injuries, the women did finally call police the following day. On Friday, Damas was arrested in his home.
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Emotional Aftermath
In her social media account, Berroteran wrote, per the translation, “I can tell you that the trauma hurts more than the physical wounds, and that I really don’t know how I will ever get over this nightmare.”
The translation continues, “No one deserves to live through what my mother and I lived through.” She called for prayers and that “justice be done,” while also promising to “become the voice of all the people who have been victims of mistreatment, abuse and in this case … almost murder.”
She concluded her message by writing, per translation, “There are no words to describe the terror, pain, trauma, anxiety and panic attacks that this has caused us. Only God knows why I am still here and I ask him to give me the strength to move forward and that at some point I can heal my heart.”
Damas is currently in jail and being held without bond.
If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
