North Texas baseball player hit by stray bullet during game

PRINCETON, Texas - A college baseball player from North Texas is in critical condition and partially paralyzed after he was shot during a game.

Matthew Delaney was hit in the chest by a stray bullet Saturday in Texarkana, which is about 180 miles northeast of Dallas.

Matthew grew up in the Collin County city of Princeton. He now attends Texas A&M Texarkana and plays on the baseball team.

The Saturday ballgame at Spring Lake Park in Texarkana was also to celebrate senior night. Instead, when the sound of a bullet hit a metal structure at the field, the players and coaches all hit the ground.

"His friend turned around, and that’s when he realized Matthew had been hit," said his mom, Amy Delaney.

Matthew, a freshman baseball player for Texas A&M Texarkana, was near the bullpen when the stray bullet struck him in the chest.  Police say the slug traveled more than 400 yards from that gunfight on a neighborhood street. 

"I was in complete shock," Amy said. "And just started immediately, and we jumped in the car and started driving to Texarkana."

Amy says she and her husband were at home near Dallas when they received that terrifying phone call. 

"By the time I got there, they had actually gotten him stabilized and in ICU, which is where he still is right now," she said.

Texarkana police say just before the call for help at the ballpark came in, there were also calls about shots fired on a nearby street.

Quick police work followed after the discovery of shell casings near a home.  Four of five people identified have been arrested.

"As it progressed, we’ve come to learn that the two people who were shooting at each other had already fled the scene," said Texarkana Police Spokesperson Shaun Vaughn. "There were three people there that at the house that were arrested. Various charges ranging from tampering with evidence to felony in possession of a firearm as well as possession of marijuana."

Yankeengea Smith, 49, is now facing drug and weapons charges. 19-year-olds Nathan Moore and Marcell Beaver are facing drug charges.

Demarco Banks, 20, turned himself in to police a day later. He's one of the two suspected shooters and is charged with deadly conduct.

(Texarkana PD)

Police are still looking for 17-year-old Kamauri Butler, who is wanted for aggravated assault.

Matthew has played baseball since he was 5 years old. He was conscious when he left the field by ambulance. He suffered a collapsed lung and other injuries. His mother says some paralysis below the waist is improving.

"He does have paralysis from his waist down on his left side. But this morning, he actually had some feeling from the knee down," Amy said. "The bullet did go in his chest and hit two of his vertebrae in his back and fractured those and hit the spine wall. The fragment is still in his back. Right now, they’re not worried about that. They need to get healed first."

Police say that stray bullet came from a pistol that has not been recovered.  The two believed to be shooting at each other – one in custody and one still at large – face charges including aggravated assault and deadly conduct.