White Sox say they weren’t aware at first that a woman injured at game was shot

CHICAGO –

The Chicago White Sox say they were not aware at first that a woman injured during Friday’s game at Guaranteed Rate Field was shot and that the Chicago Police Department would have stopped play if officers thought it was unsafe to continue.

Team spokesman Scott Reifert said police determined there was “no active threat and that the ballgame could continue.” The team was also in contact with Major League Baseball.

“If the police want to stop the game, they’re going to stop the game,” Reifert said Saturday.

The White Sox were still unsure if a gun was fired from inside or outside the ballpark. The team also defended the security procedures in place and would not say if extra measures were being implemented a day after an incident that raised questions about ballpark safety in general.

“We want our fans to be able to come into the ballgame and feel safe and have a good time, and millions of people come into this ballpark every year,” Reifert said Saturday. “We try to make sure they have as nice an evening as possible.”

Chicago police say a 42-year-old woman sustained a gunshot wound to the leg during the game against the Oakland Athletics, and a 26-year-old woman had a graze wound to her abdomen. The 42-year-old woman was in fair condition at University of Chicago Medical Center. The 26-year-old woman refused medical attention, according to the police statement.

Chicago police had no update on Saturday.

The injuries were sustained midway up Section 161 in left-centre field around the fourth inning, according to Reifert. He said no one reported hearing a gun go off and it took a while before medical personnel and investigators realized there was a shooting.

“The woman comes down to first aid with a wound,” Reifert said. “There’s a degree of time before there’s a determination of what’s even happened, right? And then there’s an investigation in the space that’s going on at the same time. Basically those things all come together to say `Wow, we have someone who somehow was shot.’ But there’s no gun report, there’s no gun shot.”

The announced crowd was 21,906 for the game, a 12-4 loss for Chicago. A postgame concert featuring Vanilla Ice, Rob Base and Tone Loc was cancelled because of “technical issues,” the team announced at the time. The White Sox said Saturday the concert was cancelled “to allow CPD to clear the areas of spectators and inspect the bleachers with the ballpark lights on” and not because of security concerns.

Players and managers from both teams said they were not aware of the shooting until after the game.