Courtesy San Diego Union Tribune

(March 23, 2010) San Diego Padres sportscaster Ted Leitner received news no parent wants to hear. At 3 a.m. March 14, while in Arizona at the Padres spring training camp, his phone rang. One of his 19-year-old twin sons, Ryan, was shot through the abdomen by a stranger after a brief verbal altercation outside a Scottsdale, Ariz., residence where a party was taking place.

“The great news is the bullet missed all his internal organs,” Leitner said. “It missed his spine and his colon by yay much.” People inside the residence identified the shooter as Zachary Baca, 18, who was arrested by police the next day on suspicion of aggravated assault. Two of Baca’s friends were also booked on weapons and drug charges.

Leitner said yesterday that his son, who lives in Scottsdale with his mother, Leitner’s ex-wife, was just released from the hospital. He told his dad that after the brief verbal confrontation, he saw the man walking back toward him with a gun and he threw a punch. “That punch probably saved his life,” said Leitner, noting that it deflected the shot downward. Ryan’s twin brother, Nicholas, who was also there, immediately drove him to the hospital.

blog comments powered by Disqus