Police Investigating Shots Fired Monday Near Palo Duro High

The story has been circulating Facebook and the Amarillo Police Department have issued a statement concerning shots fired near Palo Duro High School. Multiple calls were made from the baseball fields at the school on Monday, February 3rd, around 5:50pm, of shots fired in the 1500 block of North Hayes. According to police, the callers stated that there had been a fight in the street before the shooting started, all of the involved parties had left, and that there were no injuries.

One parent posted on Facebook that her daughter was on the one of the fields playing softball when the shootings occurred. She says that the shots were fired very close to the field and that the fathers responded to the street to secure the area why others took cover. She went on to ask where the police response was to the incident.

Many comments on social media are questioning where the police department were when this incident took place and their reported delay in responding. Amarillo Police have said they were on the scene of two major accidents on I-27 at the time of the shootings. The two accidents involved ten vehicles and a fatality. Due to the size of the accident and the amount of traffic, several officers were needed to investigate and control traffic so that more accidents did not occur. Officers not assigned to the accident were responding to calls as quickly as they could in all areas of town.

The first available officer to respond to the shots fired call was dispatched at 6:35 PM and arrived on scene at 6:52 PM. The block was checked and there were no signs of any houses or vehicles being struck by bullets. There were no reported injuries from this incident. The Amarillo Police Department has stated that it is not staffed to provide on-duty officers for security at sporting events. Officers are permitted to provide security when off-duty if requested by entities hosting sporting events.