Attack wounds 9-year-old at football practice (Pittsburgh)

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ^ | 10/22/02 | Nate Guidry and Michael A. Fuoco

[ellery]

A 9-year-old boy who was practicing with his youth football team was shot in the hip this evening by someone who fired from a wooded area at McKinley Park in Beltzhoover.

Officials said the boy sustained an abrasion wound to his left hip. He was taken to Children's Hospital in Oakland, where he was in fair condition, said hospital spokesman Dean Walters.

[My Favorite Headache]

Looks like case closed when the investigation is over and they find who was shooting out there. Looks like an accident and someone ran off...or some kids trying to spark some more fear in the northeast u.s.

[concerned about politics]

"small caliber firearm, pellet gun or bb gun,"

Guess we'll have to wait on that one, aye? In other words, he has no idea yet.

[nicholle]

I can't believe the slowness of this thread and story. Is anything being reported about this? What caliber was the bullet?

Agreed. Why is this not news? The stations would rather continue to interview "expert" after "expert" regarding the sniper. It is completely frustrating that news has become nothing more than stretching one story for hours and hours.

[Revel]

It is also possible that someone was just shooting in the woods and was unaware that there shots were going into a public area. Probably not the case, but possible. Of course I don't know the geographics of the area.

[concerned about politics]

ARG! Or kids with BB guns trying to get their school closed, too.

[Palladin]

Newspaper says: Police converged on the scene and were searching a wooded area of the park with K-9 units. Police Sgt. Michael DelCimmuto of the Zone 3 station said police were searching the woods and closed off entrances to the park. Police would not say whether they were looking for a sniper, but said they were not ruling out anything.

I don't think it was a person target-shooting AFTER DARK, with a pellet-gun, as one cop has been quoted. The coach said it sounded like firecrackers. Pellet guns don't sound like that. Guess they are trying to keep everyone calm.

[Palladin]

Kids trying to get their school closed? A possibility. Remember in the 70's, whenever kids wanted a day off, they would call in a bomb threat to the school? That was before Caller ID.

[concerned about politics]

The coach said it sounded like firecrackers.

Maybe a .22? The other shooters gun was claimed to have sounded like a backfire.

[Maximum Leader]

John Douglas had a chapter about the Black Dahlia murder in his book on famous unsolved crimes, "The Crimes That Haunt Us"

[LasVegasMac]

To me, it was a strange use of words.

You get an "abrasion" when you get a carpet burn, when you turf it on the bike and the concrete rubs some skin off, etc.

When you get hit by a bullet you have one of two things - a hole or a gash / rip / rupture of the flesh.

Other posters have said it may be related to the pads - ?

Like I said, it does not smell right.

Not that I was wearing it, but maybe it's time to move the tin foil hat off the desk.

LVM

[Tennessee_Bob]

You don't suppose that maybe the paper didn't quote a full transcript of the conversation with the coach?

Nah - the newsmedia wouldn't do that - they tell everything!

[WarSlut]

Over the noise of a typical football practice, nobody would have heard a pellet gun or a BB gun. Not a chance.

The reality is, somebody took four shots at children. Somebody was trying to kill one of those kids. And that somebody is still at large.

[concerned about politics]

The national media may not run this story, and we'll never know anymore about it. It will be a "non-event."

[concerned about politics]

The reality is, somebody took four shots at children. Somebody was trying to kill one of those kids. And that somebody is still at large.

Yeh. You're right.

[JudyB1938]

No comment, just a bump to the top.

[timestax]

bump

[Terriergal]

sick sick person. The people closest to the victim should help, the rest of the people should form a giant posse and swarm the area where the shot came from. Yes they'd be risking themselves, but IMO it's the only way to go after this evil person. The moment it happens.

[Palladin]

That sniper ba$tard better not be coming to PA. to ply his trade. We are a heavily-armed populace here, and there are a number of militia groups. I saw them in action when a certain ethnic population tried to burn down Carlisle, PA. back in the race riots of the sixties.

[Think free or die]

I wish I could say I'm surprised by this. . .

I'm already hustling our sons in and out of cars and buildings as quickly as I can. So far they haven't asked why mom is always in such a hurry. Sinking feeling.

[Terriergal]

My guess is the guy is targeting kids, but not targeting them with killing shots. If so he must make at least some differentiation between American kids and American adults.