A youth soccer game in southwest Oklahoma City turned violent over the weekend after police said a fight broke out among the adults attending the game.
One man was sent to the hospital with a gunshot injury.
A Sunday afternoon at soccer fields near Southwest 22nd and Western Avenue was interrupted by gunfire.
“It was just so fast,” Elizabeth Ortiz, a witness, said. “Everything happened so fast.”
Ortiz watched the violence unfold from the sidelines.
The witness said 25-year-old Melbin Gonzales-Vasquez became angry when one of the soccer players accidently ran into his young child who was not playing.
“Everyone tried to calm him down saying it was an accident, it happened you know?,” Ortiz said. “But why put your kid on the side if that’s going to happen? You never know what’s going to happen.”
Instead, Gonzales-Vasquez made it clear he had a gun and caused the crowd to panic.
“He yelled ‘I have a gun’ and fired at least one shot and struck an innocent bystander,” Msgt. Gary Knight, with the Oklahoma City Police Department, said. “The person was not involved in the fight.”
The victim was taken to the hospital for a non-life threatening injury.
Police said the accused shooter took off, but a parent was able to get the man’s car tag. Police tracked Gonzales-Vasquez down at his home where he was arrested.
The accused shooter was booked into the Oklahoma County Detention Center on one complaint of aggravated assault.
He has not been formally charged by the district attorney’s office.
