Woman hit by stray bullet during Cardinals game
(Nikonian Novice/Flickr)
ST. LOUIS (AP) - Police said Wednesday they were investigating after a woman attending a St. Louis Cardinals baseball game was grazed in the arm by a stray bullet that apparently originated outside Busch Stadium.
The 34-year-old victim was inside the ballpark Tuesday during the game against the Milwaukee Brewers when she felt pain in her arm. She went to a first-aid station for treatment and a bullet was later found near her seat. She had an abrasion on one of her elbows.
Todd Porter, 54, of O'Fallon, Illinois, was at the game with his son and said he was seated in front of the victim.
"Wow, I think I've been shot," the woman said near the end of the eighth inning, Porter told the Post-Dispatch .
"We thought she was joking, but everybody turned around and she showed me the blood coming down from her elbow," said Porter, who left the game. "I told my son, 'Let's get up out of here before someone else gets to shooting.'"
St. Louis police said the incident simply "amplifies our yearly message of encouraging 'Fun Without Guns.'"
"We know 'what goes up must come down,' and in this case, an innocent victim was struck," the department said.
A handful of similar incidents have been reported over the years around Major League Baseball, including one in 1965 when a 13-year-old girl was grazed in the throat by a bullet as she watched a Cardinals game at Sportsman's Park.
"My parents didn't retain an attorney back then," said that victim, Carolyn Yount Pomicter, now 65. "We were compensated with three baseball game tickets!"