Players, coaches and spectators scattered as dozens of gunshots ring out during a youth baseball game Monday night in North Charleston, South Carolina. In a harrowing scene caught on camera, some players run for cover while others stand frozen in confusion and/or fear. Children and parents can be heard screaming and crying as shots ring out in quick succession. There were no reports of casualties in the incident.
Violence has plagued the neighborhood, which has experienced 11 homicides so far in 2022, nearly double the number experienced in all of 2021, six, according to WCSC CBS 5 Charleston. Witnesses say a group of teenagers gathered in the ball field’s parking lot and started a fistfight, during which at least one person pulled a gun.
“And then all of a sudden, boom, boom, and ‘Get down, everybody, get down!’ And you’re at a park. My kids are not with me directly and you just see everybody scattering,” Lori Ferguson said. “And my son’s on the pitcher mound by himself and it was just the most traumatic thing as a mother, as a citizen of this city, that you just feel helpless. I felt completely helpless.”