Nationals and San Diego Padres players brought family and baseball fans into the clubhouse after a shooting outside Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, videos and photos show.
Padres players Manny Machado, Fernando Will Myers hoist spectators from the stands along the third baseline onto the field, then hurry into the dugout, video taken by MLB write Dan Clark shows.
“Players, including Fernando Tatis Jr. Just ran into stands and grabbed family members and brought them to clubhouse,” wrote Padres beat writer Kevin Acee in a tweet, with footage showing a different angle of the fans being shepherded into the dugout and subsequently clubhouse by the athletes.
“Hope everyone is safe! Just keep the prayers up,” tweeted Tatis. Jr., a star shortstop, about three hours after the gunfire.
Andrew Golden, a Washington Post reporter, said fans in at least two sections of the stadium were invited into the dugout by the professional baseball players.
“Here at Nats Park as fans are making their way out of the stadium. Talked to a fan who said the spectators in section 112-113 ducked down when they heard gunshots and everyone followed suit,” Golden reported in a tweet.
“Tatis and Machado opened the gate to the field and took fans to the dugout.”
One fan from Virginia said fans were “desperate” to exit the stadium after the game was suspended by gunfire.
“People were holding hands, locking arms. People were desperate to get out of there,” Ben Comeau told a local CBS affiliate.
Another fan reportedly said she was unsure what to do when she heard the loud bang.
“There were so many thoughts going through my head like, what should we do? Should we go? Should we stay?” Cali Hackett told the outlet, WUSA9. “There were people yelling all these sorts of things, like, ‘Take cover!’ . . . all of it, very scary.”
Police said a shootout about 9:30 p.m. Saturday outside the Washington National’s home stadium left three injured, including a woman bystander who attended the game and was hit while standing outside the ballpark. A pair of other victims were in one of the vehicles and later went to a hospital with gunshot wounds, cops said.