KATY, Texas (KTRK) – A youth baseball coach in Texas was hit in the shoulder by a stray bullet that was fired during a game.
Video captured the moments the shots rang out at a sports complex. Young players and their coaches can be seen frantically running off the field.
“And there was bullets flying everywhere. It wasn’t one shot. There’s bullets flying everywhere, off the poles, onto the field,” Corbin Geisendorff, assistant coach for the Texas Colts, described. “It’s just unbelievable.”
A baseball field was turned into a crime scene at the RAC sports complex on Farm-to-Market Road 2855 near Katy.
In the video, shots rang out as baseball players as young as 12 years old were out on the field for a game on Saturday morning.
“That’s terrible. I’m going to try to not get emotional, but I’ll never forget their little faces during that moment,” Colts head coach Alex Smith said. “It’s scary to realize how close the kids were.”
Smith and Geisendorff both say they were at the field when it happened; it’s a moment they’ll never forget.
“Our team was about to take the field. Our kids were out ready to go, and then shots started being let go,” Smith said. “They ducked down, got in a line and they trusted us, thankfully, and we got them to their parents.”
The Waller County Sheriff’s Office says deputies responded to a firearms complaint at 9:50 a.m. when a second caller reported that someone had been shot.
According to law enforcement, a 27-year-old man was shot in the shoulder and airlifted to a hospital.
Geisendorff says the victim was a coach for a different team at a field across from them.
“I actually went over to the gentleman and saw him right there,” Geisendorff said. “I prayed over him. There was a gentleman that was already there and they used a belt to tourniquet his arm. Stopped the bleeding really quick.”
That victim has since been released from the hospital, according to the sheriff’s office.
But where did those shots come from?
The sheriff’s office initially said three people were shooting at targets in the area.
The two coaches say they actually heard shots on Saturday during the first day of their tournament, but they didn’t sound as close.
“I looked at him this morning and I was like, ‘Yeah, this is kind of sounds a little bit close today,’” Geisendorff added.
The sports complex where the shooting occurred put out a statement about the situation, saying, in part, “We are deeply shaken by what happened, and our focus remains on supporting the coach who was injured, his family, and everyone who was affected.”
Complex officials went on to say all activities have been suspended for now.
The baseball team is now trying to rally behind one another as they process what happened.
“This is a family for us,” Geisendorff said. “This is more than just baseball.”
“I just want to make sure they’re OK and their families are OK, and we just stay together. That’s the ultimate goal,” Smith added.
The Waller County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday afternoon that suspects in the shooting were identified and taken into custody on a felony crime.