A stray bullet struck a college baseball player for Texas A&M-Texarkana in the middle of a game Saturday, according to local police and the university.
The 18-year-old player was hit at about 5:30 p.m. as he was standing in the bullpen area at the game against the University of Houston–Victoria at George Dobson Field at Spring Lake Park in Texarkana, on the border of Arkansas, Texarkana police said on Facebook.
The bullet appeared to come from “some type of altercation in a nearby neighborhood to the west of the park,” police said.
The player, whose identity has not been released, was stable Saturday night at Christus St. Michael Hospital, the university said on social media post. The police department said in its announcement of the incident Saturday night that he was going into surgery.
Leigh Strope, a spokesperson for Christus Health, said in an email Sunday afternoon that the player remained stable and that the hospital could not provide more information because of patient privacy laws.
Texarkana police spokesperson said, “Our detectives continue to investigate and are following up on several leads in the case.”
A representative for the university could not immediately be reached for comment.
The game was declared “no contest,” the university’s athletics department tweeted Sunday, and a pair of softball games the university’s team had been scheduled to play at Louisiana State University of Alexandria on Sunday were canceled “due to the events surrounding yesterday’s baseball game,” the athletics department said.
