A Texas college baseball player was shot during a game this weekend while standing in the bullpen.
The incident occurred around 5:30 p.m. on Saturday during a game between Texas A&M – Texarkana and the University of Houston – Victoria at George Dobson Field at Spring Lake Park in Texarkana, Texas. An 18-year-old player was struck by a stray bullet to the chest. According to the Texarkana Texas Police Department, the shot was fired as part of an unrelated altercation in a neighborhood adjacent to the playing field.
The player was rushed to a local hospital to undergo surgery for a gunshot wound, and was reported to be in stable condition.
A police spokesperson told the Texarkana Gazette the shooting occurred in “about” the fifth inning. The game was called off.
Police said they received back-to-back reports of shots fired and a shooting at the field. Officers responded to both scenes at roughly the same time to assist the victim and scour the shooting scene for evidence and witnesses.
Spent shell casings were found outside a home. Investigators determined two men had started shooting at each other after a disturbance at the location before “one of those errant rounds travelled about 400 yards and struck the innocent victim at the ball field.”
Police began searching for 17-year-old Kamauri Butler and 20-year-old Demarco Banks, who had fled the scene. Three men who remained back at the house were arrested for unrelated offenses.
Early Monday, Banks turned himself in and was booked on a deadly conduct charge. Butler, who is wanted for an aggravated assault charged, remains at large.