One of the two women wounded by gunfire inside Guaranteed Rate Field during a White Sox game has publicly spoken for the first time since the incident on Aug. 25.
In an exclusive interview with ABC 7 released Thursday, the woman said she still doesn’t know how a bullet wound up in her right calf as she sat with family and friends in Section 161 during the fourth inning of the White Sox’ game against the Oakland A’s.
She granted the interview with ABC 7’s Craig Wall on the condition of anonymity “because of all the media attention and the social media attention,” Wall said.
Theories, speculations and unconfirmed reports have circulated on social media, including one claim that a woman brought a gun inside the stadium and accidentally discharged it.
When asked by Wall if she brought a gun into the stadium and accidentally shot herself, she said, “Absolutely not.”
A lawyer for the woman, John Malm, previously told the Sun-Times that photographic evidence, X-rays of her injuries and medical experts determined her gunshot wound “was not self-inflicted and was not the result of her accidentally discharging a firearm.”
“Our client continues to deny ever bringing a firearm into Guaranteed Rate Field and further denies any involvement in the discharge of a firearm at the ball park,” Malm said in a statement released Thursday.
Malm also noted that the woman has been “fully cooperative with law enforcement,” and his law firm continues to investigate the incident.
The woman, 42, and a resident of far southwest suburban Montgomery, said she has never owned a gun, but a police report noted she possesses a firearm owner’s identification card.
“I would obviously like answers. I would like to know what happened that night,” the woman told Wall.
She described hearing “a loud pop,” then feeling an impact on her leg but didn’t notice anything until someone in the crowd saw blood on the ground.
“I thought somebody in the crowd had thrown a beer can or thrown something, bottle of water or something, and there was nothing there,” she said. “ ... It wasn’t until a couple of moments later that somebody mentioned that there was a bullet found a couple rows down and at that moment was when I realized I had been shot.”
“At that point, I didn’t know if there was going to be more gunfire, I didn’t know anything,” she continued. “I was terrified. I wanted to get out of that area because I knew somebody in the immediate area had a gun on them.”
The woman told Wall that while she has cooperated with law enforcement, she hasn’t heard from police since the day after the incident.
Police said Thursday they are continuing to investigate the incident, which also left a 26-year-old woman with a graze wound to her abdomen.
Former Chicago police interim Supt. Fred Waller told the Sun-Times last week that police still don’t know if the bullets came from inside or outside the stadium and likely will never be 100% sure.
The woman, a Sox season ticket holder, said she has “not been able to bring myself to go to a game” since the incident despite having “really wanted to attend.”
