Two fans were wounded by a full metal jacket bullet fired at Sox Park. Now, City Fathers are trying to play this off as a random bullet somehow arced into the “bowl” of a stadium from somewhere elsewhere in the nation’s largest open-air shooting range. Second City Cop isn’t buying it.
My take: If a woman is in the hospital with an abdominal wound, it certainly could have come from outside the park. The fact that the found the slug virtually undamaged suggests to me it didn’t penetrate the abdominal cavity of the victim’s body. One would think it might have some blood or tissue on the bullet if it had passed through the woman and exited. Furthermore, it looks like a 9mm as opposed to a .380.
At 440 yards, these guys say that a 124gr FMJ out of a KelTec carbine penetrated through 9″ of ballistics gel.
Google had this for a 124gr+P JHP:
At point blank range a 9mm+P, 124gr hollowpoint (typical) has a velocity of 1250fps and 430ft/lb of energy. Roughly 4 seconds later (at 1000 yards) that same 9mm has dropped 200 ft (2,400 inches), the velocity is 530fps (160m/s and the energy is 77 ft/lb (104 joules).
Here’s the story from CWB Chicago…
CHICAGO — A bullet that struck two women at a Chicago White Sox game on Friday evening may have landed inside the ballpark after being fired about a mile away.
That’s the current line of thinking among Chicago cops tasked with investigating the incident, which unfolded a little before 7:30 p.m. as the Sox were blistered by the Oakland Athletics.
“What started out as a teacher celebration of the first week of school escalated quickly,” a woman seated near injured fans wrote in a now-deleted Facebook post.
The victims, a 42-year-old woman and a 26-year-old woman, were struck as they sat in the bleachers near left center field. Police said the older woman was in fair condition at the University of Chicago Medical Center with a gunshot wound to her leg. The other woman declined medical attention for a graze wound to her abdomen.
And Second City Cop‘s take on it:
Shooting at Comiskey US Cellular Guaranteed Rate Sox Park last night:
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A shooting injured two women in the outfield seating area at Guaranteed Rate Field during Friday night’s White Sox game, Chicago police reported.
A police spokesperson on social media said late Friday that the department would soon provide information on a “shooting incident,” and a news release was made available early Saturday.
This is probably not true:
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A statement from the White Sox said it was unclear whether the bullets were fired from inside or outside the park.
You ever think about shooting into what is essentially a giant bowl? You have to shoot across a parking lot, over a wall, then have the bullet drop. Given that there’s at least one witness who heard a pop, it would seem a safe bet that someone got a gun in past security. But maybe we’re wrong.
MLB and the White Sox can’t be happy with a “lax security” story getting out there or the old ball park will become a shooting gallery for ne’er-do-wells who know how Swiss-cheesy security is and what’s left of the Sox fan base fades away.
As for stadium security at Sox Field, I’ll defer to Second City Cop. I haven’t tried to defeat site security there to pack heat (legally, of course), but I have at plenty of other venues. It’s not that hard, especially if you’re bringing auxiliary bags or gear. In fact, I’m batting 1000 in past attempts. I’ve even beat metal detectors at one venue. It all depends on how much metal you’re carrying through and how sensitive the site’s sponsors have the settings.
Usually though, sporting events are more concerned with smuggled booze or snacks for most folks than they are firearms. They make big money on concessions, after all.