A youth sports tournament in Katy, Texas, became a crime scene when gunshots tore across a field filled with children and families, with one baseball coach shot.
Baseball coach takes a bullet at youth tournament
A 27-year-old baseball coach was hit in the shoulder while surrounded by players, and three suspects have now been taken into custody.
The Waller County Sheriff’s Office identified the suspects as Mahmood Abdelsalam Rababah, 23, Ahmad Mawed, 21, and Mustafa Mohammad Matalgah, 27.
Each faces felony charges of deadly conduct with a firearm, accused of discharging several rounds from a pasture hundreds of yards from the ballpark. A judge issued bonds of $100,000 apiece.
Investigators said the shooting occurred at The Rac Katy complex. The three suspects were allegedly engaged in what they described as “recreational shooting” roughly 600 to 700 yards from the baseball field where the tournament was being held.
One stray bullet tore through the shoulder of a coach as he prayed with children before the start of the game.
According to witnesses, the tournament devolved into panic as the sound of gunfire rang out across the complex.
The chaos of the situation was captured on a livestream showing players, coaches, and umpires sprinting for safety, as bullets zinged of a light pole.
Texas Colts 12U coaches Alex Smith and Corbin Geisendorff explained they had heard gunfire a day earlier but assumed it was far away, but that all changed on Sunday.
“There were bullets flying everywhere … onto the field, off the poles,” Geisendorff said. “We’ll never be back there.”
Smith said the scene left him shaken. “It’s terrible. I’m going to try to not get emotional, but I’ll never forget their little faces during that moment. It’s scary to realize how close the kids were,” he said.
“Our team was about to take the field. Our kids were out, ready to go. And them shots started being let go. They ducked down, got in line, and they trusted us, thankfully, and we got them to their parents.”
Baseball coach took bullet for player
Houston Warriors founder Andy Baize recounted how the coach shielded a young player before quickly guiding the team to safety despite being wounded.
“He literally took the bullet for a child that was to his left,” Baize told KHOU 11.
“When he was struck by the bullet, his first reaction was to get down to the ground, cover his kids and get them to a safe space.”
Before paramedics arrived, a bystander managed to slow the bleeding by using a belt as a makeshift tourniquet.
First responders airlifted the coach to a hospital. He was treated and later released from the facility.
Baize recalled that after surgery, the injured coach’s first words were: “I need to leave because I have to go coach my kids at 3 p.m.”
He noted that determination shows just how close the children came to disaster.
The Rac Katy responded by suspending all games and promising to conduct a full review.
In a statement, the complex said it would do “everything possible” to ensure an incident like this never occurs again.
Teacher arrested for choking students
In a separate case in Texas, a longtime elementary school teacher was taken into custody for allegedly choking two students.
Gail Patterson, 61, was arrested September 15 after a Benbrook Police Department investigation.
She has been released from jail and is facing two counts of injury to a child.
Authorities say Patterson, a teacher at Westpark Elementary School, allegedly grabbed two fourth-graders by the throat on August 20.
According to WFAA-TV, a mother identified as Catie said her 9-year-old daughter called her in tears from school claiming, “a teacher choked her.”
An arrest affidavit stated that Patterson removed the children from class after catching them talking.
Catie said she was later shown surveillance footage of the hallway incident.
“Within two seconds, she grabs the first student by the neck, then grabs my daughter, holds them both against the wall for 11 seconds while she’s in their face,” Catie explained. Police have not released the video.
The mother also claimed school staff never contacted her, even after her daughter told multiple teachers what had happened.
“I was disgusted. It hurt. Knowing we trusted a school after coming from homeschool. We trusted them to take care of our child, and no teacher in that school took care of my child that day,” she told WFAA.
Serial killer fears in Houston
Nearby in Houston, several bodies have been pulled from local bayous in a short span of time.
Between September 15 and 20, authorities recovered the remains of five people in separate locations.
Constable Alan Rosen of Harris County Precinct One acknowledged the unusual string of discoveries.
“It’s unusual. Usually you don’t find four bodies in the bayous in a week,” he told Fox 26 Houston.
“When you have bodies showing up in bayous, it’s always a concern because we have to determine how they got there, what was the cause of death. Was it foul play? Was it suicide? Was it an accident? What were the circumstances?”
Authorities said 14 bodies have been pulled from Houston waterways since the start of the year, which has stoked concerns of a local serial killer.
Among the dead was Jade “Sage” McKissic, 20, a University of Houston student last seen September 11.
Her body was recovered days later in Brays Bayou. Police said McKissic had gone to a bar with friends before leaving alone, leaving her phone behind.
She was later spotted buying a drink at a nearby gas station and walking toward Brays Bayou around 1 a.m.
Although her cause of death has not yet been confirmed, investigators stated her autopsy “revealed no signs of trauma or foul play.”
The same day McKissic’s remains were located, another body surfaced in Green Bayou.
Additional bodies were later found in White Oak Bayou on September 16, and Buffalo Bayou on September 18. The most recent recovery also came from Buffalo Bayou.
Police said most of the autopsies remain incomplete. “Each death is different,” a Houston Police spokesperson told the Houston Chronicle.
“It’s all determined by the cause of death, which is released by the Medical Examiner after an autopsy. It’s unfortunate, but each death is different.”
