Closed its doors
The first sportsbook to open at an MLB venue closed its doors over the weekend in Washington DC after a fatal shooting.
fatal shooting outside the baseball park
The BetMGM Sportsbook at Nationals Park, which opened in February, closed soon after the fatal shooting outside the baseball park Sunday lunchtime. DC Police Commander Tasha Bryant shared an update on the crime via a tweeted video:
According to Fox 5, the shooting took place “right in front of the sportsbook.” When DC police arrived in response to a call, they found a man with critical gunshot wounds inside a vehicle parked outside the BetMGM Sportsbook.
Despite life-saving efforts, DC officials pronounced the man dead at the scene.
Victim targeted, police say
DC media reports that pedestrians and customers at various National Park businesses ran for cover in panic when multiple gunshots rang out Sunday afternoon.
BetMGM spokeswoman Elisa Richardson said her firm:
decided to close the sportsbook “for the safety of our employees.”
News4 reported witness Luis Garcia describing the shooting as “like a movie scene.” Garcia explained how she started running as she heard the shots. She said: “You just hear gunshots. Until it completely stops. Once you look back, everybody’s running in every direction.”
Garcia said that “seeing the victim fighting for his life is just something that will forever traumatize me.”
According to DC Police, the shooting was a targeted attack. Police also have video footage of a “dark-colored SUV” fleeing from the scene “at a high rate of speed shortly after the shooting occurred.” DC Police are reviewing surveillance footage from the area and investigating the incident as a homicide.
Not the first fatality
Sunday’s fatal shooting isn’t the only one to happen close to Nationals Park. At around the same time of day in October 2019, a gunman shot and killed a teenage boy one block from the baseball park.
Earlier this year, the Nationals’ stadium became the first MLB venue to host a sportsbook through its partnership with BetMGM.