Mother and toddler die after six-storey fall at Petco Park before Padres game
Police are investigating the deaths as ‘suspicious’ but have not yet determined whether fall was accidental
A 40-year-old woman and her toddler son have died after falling from a concourse at San Diego’s Petco Park before Saturday’s Padres game, police said.
The deaths of the mother and her two-year-old are being investigated as “suspicious”, though it is too early to tell if the fall – which happened in front of horrified baseball fans streaming into the park – was intentional or accidental, according to a police spokeswoman. They were pronounced dead at 4.11pm after falling from the third-level concourse, a distance of about six storeys, Lt Andra Brown told the San Diego Union-Tribune.
The victims were from San Diego and the child’s father was at the ballpark at the time of the incident, police said. Their names had not yet been released on Sunday.
Mother and child were believed to have been at a concession area prior to the fall and Lt Brown urged any witnesses to come forward with information to potentially “give the family some peace”.
“Our hearts obviously go out to the family, but also to the people who here could potentially be traumatized who saw this,” Lt Brown said Saturday. “It’s a horrible, horrible thing. That’s why we’re giving it a very serious look.”
Several onlookers approached by the Union-Tribune were too shaken to speak after witnessing the incident. Others took to social media to share their feelings.
“I’m just sitting in my seat crying,” one fan tweeted later Saturday. “Wtf even matters right now on the field knowing what went down here. If anyone is at Petco and needs a hug I’m down. This is beyond devastating.”
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