TEXARKANA, Texas (KTAL/KMSS) – A baseball player with Texas A&M University-Texarkana was hospitalized after being struck by a stray bullet during a game Saturday evening.
Texarkana Texas Police said officers were called to a shooting in a neighborhood near Spring Lake Park Saturday evening. A short time later, officers were called to the park for a baseball player that may have been shot.
When officers arrived at George Dobson Field, they learned the 18-year-old player was standing in the bullpen when a stray bullet struck him.
“The shots came from a neighborhood to the west of Spring Lake Park and was the result of some type of disturbance that happened there,” Shawn Vaughn, the department’s public information officer, explained. “The bullet traveled travel several hundred feet and struck the victim as he was standing near the bullpen area of the ball field in the park. He was not targeted nor was the shooting related to any activity going on in the park. It was a terrible incident where he was standing at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
First responders took the man to an area hospital where he underwent surgery. In a Sunday update, Texarkana Texas Police said the man is in stable condition.
Police said Sunday that they believe two men had been shooting at each other outside a home near the park. Warrants have been issued for both men who allegedly fled the scene before officers arrived.
Three other men who were at the home were arrested.
In a Twitter post, the TAMUT athletics department said, Saturday’s baseball game – set to be the finale of the regular season – versus the University of Houston-Victoria has been declared a “no contest” by the Red River Athletic Conference. A softball double-header was also canceled.