Fans at a Washington Nationals baseball game ran for shelter after three people were shot just outside the stadium’s third base gate when gunmen in two cars exchanged gunfire.
The Nationals were in the sixth inning of a game against the San Diego Padres, and players were walking off the field in between innings when numerous gunshots sounded out in speedy succession, sparking concerns of a mass shooting in the stadium.
Supporters poured out onto the field to find cover and flipped tables in a bar to hide behind while players frantically searched for family members in the stands.
Umpire crew chief Mark Carlson told a newspaper outlet that it was just chaotic and what they heard seemed like rapid shots, and they didn’t know where it was coming from.
Ashan Benedict, the Metropolitan Police Department’s executive assistant police chief, said that in the shooting that ended up being outside the stadium, one of the victims, a woman, who was an innocent bystander, was caught in the crossfire when the criminals opened fire at each other.
Ashan Benedict said the victim’s injuries were not deemed life-threatening.
The other two people who were shot were in the same car and walked into area hospitals, where they were being interviewed by police. DC police are also looking for a second vehicle.
DC Police first said there were two victims taken to the hospital and two walked into area hospitals for gunshot injuries, but they updated the number to three victims during the press conference.
Jennifer Jacobs, a senior White House correspondent for Bloomberg News, was at the game and tweeted that the first sign of concern was when everyone in and around section 115 quickly stood up, looking west towards main concourses, and then word soon spread about the gunshot, and ballplayers headed off-field.
She also shared videos on Twitter showing fans and workers in a bar running for shelter, falling over tables to take cover.
The game was officially postponed and is scheduled to continue. The Padres were up 8 to 4 heading to the bottom of the sixth.
Sunday’s originally scheduled game will be played 25 to 45 minutes after the first game is completed. Both games will be nine-inning games, as opposed to doubleheaders, which are reduced to seven innings.
Saturday night’s gunfire outside the stadium happened 24 hours after six-year-old Nyiah Courtney was killed and five adults were wounded in a mass bombing less than a mile away.
It doesn’t appear that anyone is safe, not on this planet anyhow, and it’s just scary.
DC tonight, a 10 per cent chance of rain, and a 99 per cent chance of a 13 per cent showing up with a gun! And with 40 million guns sold in America, what could possibly go wrong?
America has an enormous gun problem and despite the denials from the gun lobby, people wouldn’t get shot if people couldn’t access guns so damn easy, and the American Constitution should be revised because people in America aren’t living in 1776 and they don’t need rural militia anymore.
And the shooting will only increase because there are too many guns on the street in the hands of people who shouldn’t have them.
The Grand Old Party (GOP) won’t do anything about gun control because they get too much money from the National Rifle Association (NRA), and the money seems more important to them than people’s lives, and now America is just a shooting gallery and people can’t live safely even in their own communities.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 