Stray bullets from property less than a mile away zinged into a neighborhood T-ball game Saturday at a county park in Lithia, prompting Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies to investigate.
One of the bullets that ended up at Aldermans Ford Park, 100 Aldermans Ford Park Drive, landed next to third base, missing a child by just a few feet, witnesses said.
"There were kids everywhere," said Marshall Jones, who was watching his 9-year-old son play. An athletic director at the game subsequently called the game off and contacted the sheriff's office.
Deputies tracked the origin of the bullet to private land at 12309 Lyons Ave., where the Brandon-based Bell Shoals Baptist Church was hosting a fund-raiser that featured the firing of guns. Money from the fund-raiser was to go toward missionaries.
Sheriff's deputies instructed those at the fund-raiser to rearrange their targets so if someone missed one, a stray bullet wouldn't end up at the baseball field at Aldermans. But after a second stray bullet arrived after the first one, the fund-raiser was shut down.
"The coach jumped up on the back of his truck and saw the dent where the bullet had struck, and it was 6 to 8 inches above his head where he was standing," Jones said.
"They had known that a bullet hit the ballfield to begin with and they just kept firing off again anyway."
Sheriff's spokesman Larry McKinnon said that because there were so many people at the fundraiser there was no way to determine whose bullets landed at the park.
Efforts to reach Bell Shoals Baptist Church were unsuccessful.
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