‘All we saw was chaos.’ Charlotte-area baseball teams at tournament where gunfire erupts
Gunshots sent Little League baseball players, coaches and their families — including some from the Charlotte area — “running and screaming” during a tournament in Wilson on Sunday morning.
“I’m coaching third base adjacent to the field, about 15 hundred feet away,” Lake Norman Little League coach Steve Treffiletti told The Charlotte Observer. “All of a sudden, you just hear that noise that you don’t want to ever hear. Just pop, pop, pop, pop.”
Wilson Police officers arrived at Gillette Athletic Complex after receiving a call about an active shooter around 10:31 a.m., according to a news release. The tournament was in progress at the time.
No one was hurt, but the tournament was canceled for the day, police said.
Wilson is about 50 miles east of Raleigh.
Teams from Lake Norman Little League, 7- and 8-year-olds and 8- and 9-year-olds, were among the tournament participants. Myers Park Trinity Little League’s 8- and 9-year-old All Star team also played in the tournament but was not on the field during the incident, Queen City News reported.
Attendees reported hearing “several gunshots,” the police release said. Gunfire struck an empty vehicle in a parking lot close to one of the complex’s fields, police said.
Police determined that there was no active shooter situation, but instead a “shots being fired in the city limits type of incident.” Three shots were fired during the incident, police said.
A 14-year-old boy made false claims on social media about his involvement in the shooting, Wilson police said in a news release on Tuesday. Officers interviewed the teenager and found a realistic BB pistol in his home but ruled him out as a suspect.
An ‘absolute roller coaster’
The shooting happened during an 8U game, Lake Norman Little League said in a Facebook post on Sunday.
Treffiletti, the team’s head coach, called the situation an “absolute roller coaster.” The four days of preparation prior to the state championship game did not ready his team for what would happen in the fifth inning on Sunday.
Once people began moving frantically in another field, Treffiletti realized what was happening and his instincts took over, he said. “Everybody get off the field, get down and find shelter,” he recalled saying.
“The parents that grabbed our kids didn’t know them, and everyone just kind of banded together to protect, help, cover and console,” he said.
Treffiletti said he’s had a “tough time with” not inquiring more about the Wilson area and the tournament’s safety and security measures. After the shooting, he wondered why there weren’t any ambulances or EMT vehicles on site at an event that would have thousands in attendance, he said.
“It was just so exhilarating, happy, fun and exciting that those types of things didn’t cross our minds,” he said.
After the incident, Treffiletti and the other coaches took the team to a bowling alley in Rock Hill, he said.
“We all just tried to be around each other,” Treffiletti said. “We could have stayed there for 10 hours, it was exactly what all of us needed.”
Teams were given an option to return Monday to continue playing. Every team — including Myers Park, Franklin and Lake Norman — withdrew from the tournament, Treffiletti said.
“The safety of our children is paramount,” Myers Park said on Twitter.
The Observer was unable to reach Myers Park for comment.
‘A deliberate and malicious act’
Sara Ledbetter of Franklin recalls “chaos” breaking out after the shots were heard during her stepson’s game.
“It didn’t register until the next two shots rang out and one of the other teammate’s parents standing next to me said, ‘What’s being shot down there?’” she told the Observer.
Ledbetter said parents scrambled to get their children off the field.
“When we turned to look, all we saw was chaos, people running and screaming and more shots rang out,” she said.
“Hearing our boys crying for their parents and family that weren’t with us was truly heartbreaking,” Ledbetter said. “These are sounds I will never be able to forget.”
Ledbetter called the police’s claims of there not being an active shooter “infuriating.” Bullets can be heard on another parent’s Facebook livestream zipping past players and families, she said.
“We hope to hear an update about this investigation soon and get some sort of answer as to how or why this may have happened and see the person responsible be held accountable for their actions,” she said.
The league’s president and district commissioners will be the ones to look “a little deeper” into ways to assure the children are safe during events, Treffiletti said.
“Let’s do it better next time, let’s have more protocols and let’s have a little more security,” he said. “Let’s prevent the next one.”
This story was originally published July 13, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
