San Diego-Washington baseball game suspended after shooting outside Nationals Park

Following a shooting outside Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., the San Diego Padres-Washington Nationals baseball game was suspended on Saturday, July 17. The players and fans were seen running for cover as gunshots rang out. The game will be resumed by Sunday afternoon, followed by the regularly scheduled game.

Dustin Sternbeck, a Metropolitan Police Department spokesman said that two people were shot and one of the victims was an employee at the stadium as per preliminary investigation reports. 

Washington police took to Twitter to inform, “Two additional victims associated with this incident walked into area hospitals for treatment of gunshot wounds.”

Umpire crew chief Mark Carlson said, “It was just a chaotic scene. We heard what sounded like rapid gunfire. We didn’t know where it was coming from". The Padres had just taken the field for the bottom of the sixth when several loud shots were heard from the left-field side of the ballpark.

During the initial gunshots, fans sitting in the left-field began to disperse through the center field gate, and later, fans along the first base side began briskly leaving their seats. Later, fans crowded into the Padres’ dugout on the third-base side for cover as sirens could be heard from outside the park.

When the game was on hold, the Padres led 8-4 while Tatis had four hits for San Diego and Ryan Zimmerman homered for Washington.

What did the fans hear? 

Ted Borenstein, 26, heard two pops while the crowd thought it was practice for a firework show. He was at the game with his girlfriend and best friend, celebrating birthday and “having a great time”. 

Borenstein said he realized it was a serious situation when people in the stands started moving out and watched Padres star shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. “bolt from the field.’

Assuming a shooter was inside the stadium’s Diamond Club, where he and his friends were, people were hiding under tables and chairs. He added, “People were down on the ground, kind of petrified, trying to calm down the younger kids. I was taken aback, I was scared". 

Firing at the stadium 

The Nationals initially announced that there had been an incident outside the stadium and posted a message on the scoreboard informing fans to remain inside the stadium.

In addition, the team tweeted: “A shooting has been reported outside of the Third Base Gate at Nationals Park. Fans are encouraged to exit the ballpark via the CF and RF gates at this time". 

More than two dozen police cars, ambulances, and fire engines were on the street outside the third base side of the stadium and a police helicopter hovered overhead.

Increasing crime in the US

The incident comes as an addition to a rising number of violent crimes and homicides in the US. Earlier on July 16, a 6-year-old girl was killed and five other people were wounded in a shooting about three miles from Nationals Park. Washington’s mayor and police chief, flanked by federal law enforcement officials to announce a $60,000 reward for information in this case.

In another case, Arman Ramnath, 27, from nearby Arlington, Virginia, and a recent law school graduate, said he and a friend were sitting in the third-base side of the Nationals Park when they heard what sounded like fireworks.

Ramnath said, “We weren’t sure what it was. Then everyone started ducking". 

He added, “It felt very surreal. I wasn’t really sure how to react. I mean, you hear about it ... but you never expect it to be something that could affect you.”

(Image credit: AP)