Shooting Outside Nationals Park Halts Baseball Game With Padres

WASHINGTON, DC — The Washington Nationals' game with the San Diego Padres was halted Saturday night around 9:30 p.m. when a shooting occurred directly outside the third base gate at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C.

The game was suspended until Sunday, with the Padres ahead of the Nationals 8-4 in the bottom of the sixth inning.

The Metropolitan Police Department said Saturday night it responded to the 1500 block of South Capitol Street SW where three people had been shot outside of Nationals Park. South Capitol Street runs along the third base line of the stadium.

During a news conference Saturday night, city officials said three people had been shot, including a woman who had attended the baseball game. The woman had left the stadium and was caught in the crossfire. She is expected to recover from her gunshot wounds, the police said.

Two of the suspected shooters who were hospitalized were in an SUV and were targeted by gunfire from a sedan. The two suspects are in stable condition. The police said they are still looking for the sedan, which was last seen traveling southbound on South Capitol Street.

Fans were seen scrambling from their seats, with some coming onto the field and others heading to the concourse of Nationals Park after the shooting. They were initially told to remain in the stadium area.

"The field has been cleared and some fans are running out the left field concourse toward the exit after what sounded like several gun shots shortly after the top of the 6th ended," MASN reporter Mark Zuckerman wrote in a tweet shortly after 9:30 p.m.

Five or six gunshots could be heard coming from behind the third base stands, Zuckerman said.

"After an initial period of chaos that saw some fans try to escape onto the field and others run to take cover wherever possible, public address announcer Jerome Hruska informed fans the incident had taken place outside the stadium and asked everyone to remain inside the park for the time being," Zuckerman wrote in an article for MASN.

During the initial 15-minute period after the gunshots, fans and others inside the stadium were uncertain whether the gunshots had come from inside the stadium and whether it was a coordinated attack on Nationals Park.

By 9:45 p.m., though, the public address announcer informed fans that they could exit the stadium through the centerfield and right field gates.

While fans were sheltering inside Nationals Park, police and Nationals Park security had learned that the shooting had occurred directly outside the third base gate at Nationals Park at the intersection of South Capitol Street and O Street SW. Stadium employees said the shooting "appeared to be a drive-by shooting," Washington Post reporter Sam Fortier wrote in a tweet.

Over the last few months, several shootings and other acts of violence have occurred around Nationals Park, an area with a high crime rate. On May 17, a man was shot and killed in the 100 block of O Street SW, just a couple of blocks from Nationals Park. A double shooting in the 1400 block of 1st SW — about four blocks from the stadium — on May 12 left one man injured and one juvenile injured.

In March, a 15-year-old girl and 13-year-old girl participated in a carjacking near the stadium that led to the death of a Virginia man. Three girls were arrested on July 9 after allegedly attempting to carjack someone and using a stun gun near Nationals Park.

D.C. Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Christopher Geldart said at Saturday night's news conference that the shooting was unrelated to the baseball game or the stadium but that there would be an increased police presence for Sunday's games.

"We want to make sure fans and our residents know that it is safe to come down here to the game," Geldart said. "This was an isolated incident that happened outside the ballpark."

The Nationals announced Saturday night that the game will resume at 1:05 p.m. on Sunday. The regularly scheduled game for Sunday will start between 25 and 45 minutes after the conclusion of the suspended game.