‘Incredibly Bad Luck’: Texas College Baseball Player Struck by Stray Bullet at Ballpark During Game

An incident of "incredibly bad luck" occurred on Saturday during a college baseball game in Texas, when an 18-year-old player was hit by a stray bullet while standing in the bullpen, according to authorities.

Around 5:30 p.m. on April 29, Texas A&M-Texarkana and University of Houston-Victoria faced off in a baseball game when gunfire erupted at George Dobson Field at Spring Lake Park in Texarkana, the Texarkana Police Department said.

Police said there was “some type of altercation” that took place in a nearby neighborhood, which resulted in shots being fired.

A stray bullet ended up hitting the baseball player, Matthew Delaney, in the chest, officials said. He was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he underwent surgery and was listed in stable condition on April 30.

Officials said they initially received several calls regarding shots being fired in the neighborhood just west of Spring Lake Park. Moments after that, they received a 911 call stating a baseball player at the park “had collapsed” and he “may have been shot.”

Police determined the two incidents were related, so they had some officers “at the ball field rendering aid to the victim,” while other officers were in the nearby neighborhood “looking for any evidence or witnesses.”

Investigators determined the incident in the neighborhood started as a “disturbance” that escalated to a gunfight between two men in the front yard of a home.

One of their bullets “traveled about 400 yards and struck the innocent victim at the ball field,” police said.

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Detectives identified the suspected gunmen as 17-year-old Kamauri Butler and 20-year-old Demarco Banks, officials said. Both men fled the scene before cops arrived, but Banks turned himself in on April 30 and was booked into the Bi-State Justice Center and charged with deadly conduct.

Butler remains at large and police are appealing to the public for help with locating him.