TEXARKANA, Texas – A baseball player for a small college in Texas was in stable condition Monday after he was struck by a stray bullet during a game over the weekend.
Matthew DeLaney, who was not in uniform for Texas A&M-Texarkana, was standing near the bullpen and batting cages near the southwest corner of George Dobson Field on Sunday when he was hit by a bullet fired from an adjacent neighborhood, police said.
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DeLaney, 18, of Princeton, Texas, was struck in the chest and taken to a Texarkana hospital, where he remained in intensive care.
“The official status we have for him from the hospital is that he is in stable condition,” university communications manager John Bunch said in an email, “but we think it’s important to note that he has a number of serious injuries, as would be expected with this type of trauma. He has made slight improvements daily but still has significant injuries and complications to overcome.”
The game between Texas A&M-Texarkana and Houston-Victoria was called off after the shooting, which occurred during the fifth inning.
Police issued felony warrants for a 17-year-old male for aggravated assault and for a 20-year-old male for deadly conduct. The 20-year-old turned himself in to authorities on Monday, police said, and the 17-year-old remains at large.
Police, in a post on the Texarkana department's Facebook page, said they received several calls about shots fired in the neighborhood west of the ballfield. Officers found several spent shell casings in the front yard of a residence.
Police said a disturbance ended with two men shooting at each other in front of the house. One of the shots traveled about 400 yards and struck DeLaney.
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