TEXARKANA, Texas — An 18-year-old baseball player is recovering after being struck by a bullet during a game Saturday afternoon at George Dobson Field at Spring Lake Park.
The Texas A&M University-Texarkana player was hit once in the chest as he sat in the left field bullpen during an Eagles game, said Shawn Vaughn, Texarkana Texas Police Department spokesman. The incident happened about 6 p.m.
The player was taken to a local hospital for emergency surgery.
Vaughn said it does not appear anyone was the target of the shooting. The stray bullet seems to have been fired from a neighborhood near the ballfield.
“Incredibly bad luck, bad place,” Vaughn said.
Around the time of the shooting, police were alerted to shots being fired from cars traveling through a nearby neighborhood, Vaughn said.
The shooting happened about the fifth inning of the Eagles’ game against the University of Houston-Victoria.
“The announcer said, ‘Shots fired! Shots fired,’” said a game attendee who asked not to be identified.
The announcement caused the crowd to scatter, the attendee said.
A vast section of Spring Lake Park on Saturday was filled with hundreds of Boy Scouts, who planned to camp out for the annual Scout-O-Rama. However, the event was called off after the shooting.
The shooting remains under investigation.