NEWSLETTER
What was supposed to be a fun night at the ballpark turned out to be a nightmare for three females, and countless other fans that didn’t even know it. During Friday night’s contest between the Chicago White Sox and Oakland Athletics, three females were struck by gunfire.
The White Sox released a statement after 1:00 a.m., confirming that two fans were struck by a bullet while sitting inside section 161 of Guaranteed Rate Field on Friday night. The Chicago Police also confirmed the incident in an early-morning statement that came hours after the news broke that the scheduled post-game performance by Vanilla Ice was cancelled due to “technical difficulties.” Even before the cancellation sent fans home confused and upset, they knew about the incident, as it occurred in the fifth inning according to a third victim who detailed the event in a Facebook post.
“I was talking with a co-worker with my back to the field [when] we heard a pop (it sounded like when you fill a water bottle with air and twist it and the cap comes off), then a pop off of the metal bleacher. I felt a pinch in my back. She said ouch, and a lady screamed behind us. (I was barely grazed, the other two [women] were hit.”
News of the incident didn’t start to circulate on social media until after the game had ended. And believe it or not, stadium personnel was actually setting up for the scheduled performance before fans were alerted via the center field scoreboard that the performance was off.
Confused and upset fans made their way out of the ballpark and were met by a heavy police presence that included the Chicago Police Department’s SWAT team. Chicago Police detectives began to canvass section 161 and the surrounding area and located blood and a shell casing. Again, after the game.
Scanner watchers on social media reported chatter on the CPD airwaves of a SWAT response that was dispatched to the ballpark. They also noted that the police wanted to keep the incident hush-hush over the air.
Chicago Police confirmed in an early-morning statement of their own — after cancelling a scheduled 10:45 media briefing — that a 42-year-old female victim sustained one gun-shot wound to the leg. A 26-year-old female victim also sustained a graze wound to the abdomen. The 42-year-old female was transported to University of Chicago Medical Center where she is listed in fair condition. The 26-year-old female refused medical attention.
How can the White Sox, Major League Baseball, and the Chicago Police Department wait hours after the incident and not stop play or evacuate the stadium. According to the White Sox statement, they’re weren’t able to determine where the bullet came from, inside the stadium or outside. Video of the incident obtained by Jay Cohen of the Associated Press backs up the timeline of the third victim, who both the police and the White Sox excluded from their statements.
Outside of the people in the immediate vicinity of the victims, the 21,000-plus attendees to Friday night’s game were oblivious to what had transpired.
I spoke with a family member of an Oakland Athletics’ player who was in attendance last night, who confirmed to me that they weren’t aware of the incident until they were evacuated to a safe area within the ballpark at the end of the game.
The family member of the A’s player said that a White Sox security member came to the section where they were sitting and asked them if the A’s security team had alerted them, to which they replied that they hadn’t. At which point, the “panicked” member escorted the A’s family members to a safe area.
Once in that area, an MLB security official briefed them on the incident, and told them that the bullet came from outside of Guaranteed Rate Field.
“When we were down there safe, another MLB high-up security [member] confirmed to us that there was a shooting and told us that the shots came from outside of the stadium.”
So, not only did the White Sox, MLB, and Chicago Police not suspend the game, evacuate the fans, or even inform them of what had happened, they tried to sweep it under the rug. They tried to keep the information off the air on the police radio, and then the White Sox misled fans with their statement on the cancellation of the performance at the end of the game.
It’s great that the no one was seriously hurt. It’s even better that — according to the family member of A’s player that I spoke with — the gunfire came from outside of the stadium. However, the parties involved, who hold a responsibility to the fans inside of the ballpark couldn’t have handled this incident any more poorly than they did last night.
