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When the gunshots started ringing all around Nationals Park, San Diego Padres star shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. quickly thought of the team’s family and friends sitting in the seats. .
Tatis rushed off the bench along the left field line on Saturday night, helped open a door to the stands and began to lead a group back to the dugout for cover.
“Our family, our loved ones, our grandchildren. Feel that someone needed to go and get them,” Tatis said on Sunday. “I feel like the safest place was the clubhouse and we were trying to get our families to a safe place.”
The top half of the sixth inning of the game between the Padres and the Washington Nationals had just ended in front of about 33,000 fans when several gunshots were heard in an incident on South Capitol Street just outside of the third goal of the stadium. .
But at the moment, no one was sure whether the rapid series of gunfire was coming from inside the stadium or beyond.
Padres manager Jayce Tingler was on his way to see plate umpire Jordan Baker about a pitcher change in a game down 8-4 by San Diego.
“He said to me, ‘Did you hear that?'” Tingler recalls, telling Baker. “I’m like ‘Yeah, I think so’ and it kind of registered what it could have been and obviously it was just a nightmare.”
A chaotic scene quickly developed. As the Padres cleared the pitch, some fans rushed out of the stadium while others ducked and tried to hide, looking for shelter.
“Everyone was running. It was crazy. You couldn’t figure out what was going on. If it was one or two people,” Tatis said. “I was just trying to get to the safest place and get our families back.”
Tatis and his teammates Manny Machado and Wil Myers have been praised for helping guide – and even put fans out of harm’s way.
“The situation changed immediately,” Tatis said. “There are no more players, no fans. I feel like everyone is just people, human beings trying to be safe.”
The game was suspended at that time and resumed on Sunday, before the regular game.
The shooting, a shootout between people in two cars, left three people injured, according to Ashan Benedict, executive assistant police chief of the Metropolitan Police Department. One of those shot was a woman attending the match who was beaten while outside the stadium, he said on Saturday evening. His injuries were not considered life threatening.
Two people who were in one of the cars later entered a local hospital with gunshot wounds and were interviewed by investigators, Benedict said, and the extent of their injuries was not immediately clear. Investigators were still trying to locate the second vehicle involved in the shooting.
As the shots rang out, Nationals manager Davey Martinez made sure his players were safe.
“Then I started worrying about their families and trying to do my best to bring them back to the players,” Martinez said. “And I also started to worry about the fans.”
Seeing the reaction from the third base side of the stadium, fans at first base also started to flee their seats. Some of them went down to the field.
“There were a bunch of fans, they were in our canoe and I wanted to get them to safety as well,” Martinez said. “We got them in through the tunnel and got them in safely and tried to keep them safe. For me, it was just about protecting our people and doing my best to stay calm.”
Like Tingler, Martinez became moved as he recounted the events of the previous night.
Minutes after the gunshots were heard, a message appeared on the national park dashboard stating that the incident was outside the park and fans should stay inside. About 10 minutes later, fans were ordered to leave through the center and right field gates.
“We started to learn that it all happened right outside the stadium,” Tingler said. “That’s when we started to feel a little better. It never feels good.”
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