AUBURN, Wash. — Two people were injured after gunfire erupted near Isaac Evans Park in Auburn Sunday evening.
Video shared with KOMO News from a nearby baseball game shows several players and their families who were taking part in a tournament in nearby Brannan Park running for cover as they heard several gunshots. In the video, over 30 shots can be heard in the background as people at the game react and run for cover.
"The first thing that kept going through my head is what if there’s a stray bullet that hit somebody around us with all these kids out there," Denise Rutter-Lang, whose son was up to bat when the shooting started, said.
According to the Auburn Police Department (APD), the shooting happened on the 29800 block of Green River Road around 8:15 p.m.
"Several of the boys barricaded and laid on top of him in the dugout to protect him," Larry, who preferred not to share his last name, said of the teens who helped protect his nine-year-old son who was a bat boy at the game. "It was all reactionary, you’re not really thinking at that point, you’re just like, where’s my family and how do I get them safe?"
Police said two groups were involved in a dispute and were driving away in two separate vehicles when at least one person started shooting, according to police.
"It was a really chaotic scene in that moment, we didn’t know where the gunshots were coming from, we didn't know if they were coming towards us, we did hear bullets whizzing by us," Theron Meier, whose son Hunter is on the team, said.
Police said two women were shot, including one who is approximately in her late teens. One woman was found near the shooting scene and the other was found after arriving at a local hospital. Both suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
The APD told KOMO News one of the vehicles also crashed as they were driving away and the suspects ran. Police tried to use K-9 units to track the suspects, but were unsuccessful.
It’s unclear at this point if the shooting may have been gang-related or how the groups involved knew each other. The APD is investigating.
Parents said their team will no longer be returning to play at that field again after numerous issues over the years.
There are numerous homeless vehicles down there, there are people that have OD’d in the bathrooms, there’s needles," Theron Meier said. "There’s been multiple incidents there over the last couple of years. The city of Auburn needs to do better, this is a youth park for our youth to congregate at, not a homeless village.ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uLbAnKuvZpOkunC6xLCqaKaRqbawuoywpquklGS4qrDSZqeaqpWjwbR50a6lZp6fp3qku9WeqWaZo2K0trrFoqmeZZWnwrHA0malnpmiYq%2Biv8SbmKWkXam8tr7NmqSepqRirrV5wK6ZrqqeYr2ivspmnpqllZi1orrGnqlmpJmrsm6%2F06ucmqWZo7RuwMSepaxllpa6qrjYZp6apZVitrS%2FwJxknq6Ro8BuvMCromarmKS8tbXNoGSgrZ5iw6q7y56lnJ1dqMK0vMScq2ahnquytMDIoJitoZ%2BjeqyFjKyfqKxdnrurwdGem2afkaO0br7EpZitnZRitLO71Kmq