Four Oakland A’s Major League Baseball fans inside the team’s RingCentral Coliseum were injured by what police are calling “celebratory gunfire” during a post-game fireworks show after the A’s Fourth of July win over the Toronto Blue Jays.
Police responded to a call about a possible shooting victim at the RingCentral Coliseum’s Fourth of July fireworks show following the Oakland A’s victory over the Toronto Blue Jays. When they arrived on the scene, according to a press release and local media reporting, they found three more fans in the stadium wounded by bullet fragments. A fourth fan walked into a local hospital on his own, also struck by bullet fragments at the A’s stadium.
Reportedly, none of them sustained life-threatening injuries and police are offering up to a $20,000 reward for information leading them to solve the case.
Authorities are blaming the fan shootings on “celebratory gunfire” that was apparently occurring throughout the City of Oakland, California on Independence Day, and say that they believe the gunfire originated from outside the ballpark.
“Following last night’s Oakland A’s postgame fireworks show, officers were notified of a possible shooting victim inside the ballpark,” the Oakland A’s and Oakland police said in a joint press statement. “During the preliminary investigation, officers located three fans struck by bullet fragments from what appears to be celebratory gunfire occurring throughout the city of Oakland. A fourth victim later walked into a local hospital. All four victims sustained non-life-threatening injuries.”
Despite California’s strict gun control laws, which were dealt a serious blow by recent Supreme Court rulings reinforcing the 2nd Amendment, police say that “celebratory gunfire” was occurring throughout the City of Oakland on the Fourth of July. Celebratory gunfire has often been seen in third-world and war-torn countries and is becoming an increasing issue in American inner cities, where the streets have become largely dominated in many cases by heavily and illegally-armed gangs.
Despite easy access to guns among gang members and others in the criminal class in high gun control regions like California and Chicago, law-abiding citizens largely remained disarmed, and are increasingly being victimized. Under a new ruling from the US Supreme Court, the right of American citizens to keep and bear arms outside of their homes was affirmed, slapping down New York’s tight restrictions on who can apply for and leading to predictions that a similar California law will be challenged and struck down.
