PA Boy At Baseball Game Struck By Bullet Fired 2 Miles Away
The news:
Allentown, PA — A 10 year old boy at an Iron Pigs baseball game was on the field with about 100 others taking place in a Quidditch match, a game made famous by the Harry Potter movies, when he suddenly fell to the ground. This event took place between 5:30 – 6:00pm.
His parents and a few others who were nearby took care of him and found that he was bleeding, but was able to walk off the field. After leaving, the boy's parents brought him to a nearby hospital to see what caused the puncture wound. An X-RAY showed a bullet in the back of the boy's knee.
After their investigation, Allentown PD believes that the boy was hit by a bullet that was fired into the air from somewhere else. According to police, it could be as far as two miles away.
General Manager Kurt Landes said this to reporters:
The police officers we were speaking to last night felt pretty confident, with 99% certainty, that someone shot into the air and it was just the horrible misfortune that it landed where it did.
During their investigation, Allentown Police found no signs of a shooting taking place anywhere near, in, or around the stadium. They're still looking into where the shot was fired from. Landes continued:
There were zero reports of gunfire in the park, zero reports of gunfire in the neighborhood. In fact there were zero reports of gunfire, as police told me, in the city last night.
Because police found zero evidence of a gun being fired, they think the boy was hit by a bullet as it was falling from the sky, and this is confirmed based on the trajectory of it hitting the knee. According to reports, the bullet came down at an 80 degree angle.
The opinion:
We've written on this topic before. We do not condone celebratory shooting of any kind, unless it is into a berm or something else that will make a solid stop of a bullet. Bullets can travel miles before falling to the ground, and they do have to fall somewhere.
In this case, the bullet fell into a little boy's kneecap. Who knows if this kid will have permanent damage to his leg now, because some schmuck decided to shoot his gun into the air.
Make no mistake here, if I sound pissed, it's because I am. I'm writing about this story because this hits really close for me. Where I used to live in Pennsylvania just one year ago was very close to this location. We found ourselves at that stadium several times each year. I can also say with certainty that we had friends at that ball game.
While I haven't enjoyed baseball since I found out how bad I was as a participant — my wife, three little kids, and I always had a great time with the Iron Pigs.
I urge you to NOT shoot your gun into the air. The bullet has to land somewhere. You won't know where until it's too late and that's if you even find out. And, just because you never find out doesn't mean someone was not hurt by your bullet. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.