Football dispute led to gunfire, police say No arrests in shootings at park

four victims released from hospitals

One player tackled another player too hard.

That's all it took, city police say, to turn a Sunday afternoon pickup football game into a free-for-all and spark a barrage of gunfire that left four players wounded at Carroll Park in Pigtown.

More than 100 people scattered as shots rang out about 5: 40 p.m. Children watched the mayhem from a nearby swing set. Players hid behind trees. Spectators ran for home. Firefighters heard the shots and saw victims fall.

"That's a crime that's really hard to control," said Southern District Lt. Barry Baker, frustrated that a gunman "would take that kind of action for something that trivial."

Police did not make any arrests in the case yesterday, and the four victims were released from city hospitals. They were identified as Donte Parson, 19, Timothy Norris, 18, Ronnie Brooks, 20, and Derrick Jones, 25.

They were shot one or two times in the shoulders, legs and arms. Jones was hit in the neck. All live outside Pigtown. One lives in western Baltimore County, another lives in West Baltimore, the third lives in Northeast Baltimore, and the fourth in Westport.

Police said the men were playing football in Carroll Park, near Washington Boulevard and Bush Street, when a hard tackle sparked a fistfight between the teams.

"A crowd had gathered to watch the donnybrook and then shots rang out and people were hit," said Lt. John Tewey, commander of the Violent Crimes Task Force, which investigates all nonfatal shootings.

"A couple of guys were overexuberant in their hitting," Tewey said, adding that detectives believe an angry spectator started shooting at the crowd and continued firing as the group scattered.

"Everybody was running," Tewey said. "The victims don't know who shot them."

Investigators believe the gunman sped away in a gray Hyundai with a Maryland temporary license plate with a possible number of 0092670.

City police stepped up patrols yesterday in the Pigtown park, but continued to stress that crime in the neighborhood has dropped significantly this year compared with last.

"Anytime you have something like this, even though it's unforeseen, you have to take additional measures to let people know you are looking out for them," Baker said. "Things are 100 percent better than they were last year. Things like this are always a setback."

It's a setback in other ways. Police Commissioner Thomas C. Frazier has made protecting city parks a top priority, right behind seizing guns and putting more officers on the street.

pTC "This year, we will work to maintain order and safety in public spaces -- the parks, greenways and commercial areas that are central to the city's well-being," he wrote in a mission statement to officers in January.

Baker said that until Sunday, only four people had been shot in Pigtown -- a community of about 9,000 -- since January 1995. One was a homicide -- a woman who police said was fatally shot last year by a robber upset that all she had was 52 cents in her pocket. That occurred one block from Sunday's incident.

Police said that in the first nine months of this year, violent crime in Pigtown has decreased 4 percent compared with last year.

The park was quiet yesterday afternoon. One man practiced golf shots from second base of a softball diamond. Tire tracks from police cars crisscrossed the grassy field, and shoes, torn shirts and a trash bag full of empty beer bottles were piled near where the shootings occurred.

Doc Godwin, president of the Hearts of Pigtown community association, said he was concerned about the shootings. "We've been complaining for a long time," he said, refusing to elaborate on what he meant.

"As a community leader," he said, "I'm concerned with anything that happens in our neighborhood that involves public safety."

Pub Date: 10/15/96