18-year-old shot during baseball game ‘remains in ICU with the bullet STILL lodged near his spine’

The 18-year-old Texas A&M-Texarkana (TAMUT) baseball player who was shot from 400 yards while standing in the bullpen during a college baseball game is currently suffering from partial paralysis in his leg and remains in intensive care, according to a report.

The Texarkana Texas Police Department arrested a second man on Tuesday and he was booked into Bi-State Jail as a result. Police believe both Demarco Banks, 20, and Kamauri Butler, 17, are the gunmen in the dispute that eventually led to Matthew Delaney being shot in the chest.

They announced that shots had been fired on Sunday in a neighborhood west of George Dobson Field in Spring Lake Park and that an errant round “traveled about 400 yards and struck the innocent victim in the ball field.”

Banks and Butler were charged with deadly conduct and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, respectively.

ESPN spoke to Delaney’s mother, Amy, on Tuesday and reported that he is in intensive care with partial paralysis in his left leg, two broken vertebrae and a collapsed lung.

‘Are [the lung] inflate slowly,” she said. ‘It’s getting a little better every day. He still has a chest drain to try and drain some fluid out of it.”

The bullet has yet to be removed by surgeons, given its proximity to Delaney’s spinal cord. The freshman baseball player is unable to move his left leg despite feeling returning. According to Mrs. Delaney, he can wiggle a toe sporadically.

“He was where he needed to be, did what he needed to do,” she told ESPN. “It’s not something we could have ever imagined.”

Amy Delaney told the outlet that there is currently no indication of how long her son will remain at Christ St. Michael Hospital, nor any future prognosis. The 18-year-old has received tremendous support from the community that borders Arkansas.

“They’ve been here every day calling, coming in, the team, the staff,” said Amy Delaney. “Everyone has reached out. They sent us food. They just supported me so much.

“We’ve had three different small businesses that have made donations to Matthew just trying to help in any way they can. We’ve had people we didn’t even know offer our home because we needed a place to stay. The outpouring of people here in Texarkana has been just amazing and we’re just so thankful.”

Department spokesman Shawn Vaughn told the Texarkana Gazette it was a case of ‘unbelievable bad luck, bad place’.

TAMUT released statements this week confirming the incident, subsequent hospitalization, the decision of the game as a no-contest, and the cancellation of a softball doubleheader-Sunday.

“The university’s advisory services are available to players and other students,” the statement said. “At this time, we ask that you keep our student-athlete, his family, teammates and friends in your prayers.”

Police also made three arrests of men who were at the scene of the shooting on Saturday.

Yankeengea Smith, 49, was taken into custody for unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon and two counts of possession of methamphetamine and ecstasy pills.

19-year-olds Nathan Moore and Marcell Beaver were arrested for tampering with evidence and possession of marijuana and possession of marijuana, respectively.

Texarkana police said on Tuesday “no additional arrests are expected” in connection with the incident.