One suspect has been arrested and another is at-large in relation to the mid-game shooting involving a college baseball player over the weekend, MyParisTexas.com reports.
Demarco Banks, 20, turned himself into Texarkana Police overnight while Kamauri Butler, 17, is reported to still be at large.
A Texas A&M-Texarkana baseball player was struck by a stray bullet while standing in the bullpen area during a game on Saturday (April 29), the university and local police confirmed via NBC News. The player, who was publicly identified only as an 18-year-old, was shot during his team's game against the University of Houston-Victoria at Georgia Dobson Field at Spring Lake Park in Texarkana at around 5:30 p.m., the Texarkana Police Department confirmed in a post shared on its Facebook account.
Police initially said the stray bullet was suspected to have come from "some type of altercation in a nearby neighborhood to the west of the park," which was later confirmed.
“We were able to almost immediately determine that the two incidents were related, so as some officers were at the ball field rendering aid to the victim, other officers were on Lynda Street looking for any evidence or witnesses," the Texarkana Police Department said in a statement obtained by MyParisTexas.com. "Those officers located several spent shell casings in the front yard of a residence there. Our detectives and crime scene investigators responded to the house on Lynda and determined that the incident started as a disturbance there that lead to two men shooting at each other in front of the house. One of those errant rounds travelled about 400 yards and struck the innocent victim at the ball field. Both the Butler and Banks fled the area before officers got there, but we made arrests of three other men who were there after detectives obtained a search warrant for the house and several vehicles at the scene."
Officers arrested Yankeengea Smith, 49, for unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon and two counts of possession of a controlled substance (methamphetamine and ecstasy pills); Nathan Moore, 19, for tampering with evidence and possession of marijuana; and Marcell Beaver for possession of marijuana in relation to the incident that escalated into the shooting.
Police had initially confirmed that the baseball player underwent surgery in their Facebook post. Leigh Strope, a spokesperson for Christus Health, confirmed that the player was still in stable condition but the hospital couldn't provide additional details in adherence with patient privacy laws in an email to NBC News on Sunday (April 30).
Texarkana Police are continuing to investigate the incident "and are following up on several leads in the case," a spokesperson confirmed via NBC News. Saturday's game was declared a "no contest" and two softball games between Texas A&M-Texarkana and Louisiana State University of Alexandria scheduled for Sunday were canceled "due to the events surrounding yesterday's baseball game," Texas A&M-Texarkana's athletics department announced on its Twitter account.
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