Two immigrants allowed into the United States by the Biden administration have been charged in a shooting that injured a baseball coach while he was leading a prayer on the field.
The reckless shooting occurred on Sept. 21 near the Ameripark youth baseball field in Katy, Texas. The young players were about to start a game, and the gunfire wounded a Houston youth baseball coach as he led a pregame prayer, Fox News Digital reported.
Three suspects, pictured in order below, Ahmad Mawed, 21, Mustafa Mohammad Matalgah, 27, and Mahmood Abdelsalam Rababah, 23, were eventually arrested and charged in the crime, the Waller County Sheriff’s Office shared in a Facebook post on Sept. 24.
They each face felony charges of deadly conduct with a firearm, the Waller County Sheriff’s Office said. They were being held on $100,000 bond. The department said it will continue working closely with prosecutors as the case proceeds.
Matalgah, a native of Jordan, became a U.S. citizen after being admitted by the Biden administration. Mawed, an alien from Lebanon, was granted a green card by the Biden administration.
KBTX 3 via KTRK/CNN Newsource reported it as a stray bullet that hit the coach. But witnesses say it was more than one random gunshot.
“And there was bullets flying everywhere. It wasn’t one shot. There’s bullets flying everywhere, off the poles, onto the field,” Corbin Geisendorff, assistant coach for the Texas Colts, described. “It’s just unbelievable.”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security shared the story and their mugshots on social media to highlight the Biden administration’s failures at the border.
“Two of the MONSTERS who opened fire on a children’s baseball field in Katy, Texas, gained status and even U.S. citizenship under the Biden Administration,” DHS posted. “These individuals should never have been allowed into our country. Under @POTUS Trump, and @Sec_Noem we are working to prevent attacks like these from ever happening again.”
In a news release, DHS said, “This case illustrates the Biden Administration’s failure to vet aliens let into the U.S. from high threat countries.”
Matalgah was granted U.S. citizenship on Aug. 1, 2023, despite prior arrests for drug possession.
Mawed, an alien from Lebanon, was allowed entry to the U.S. on an IR-2 visa on June 3, 2021, which automatically made him a legal permanent resident.
Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin called the baseball field shooting a “horrific act of terror” and “pure evil.”
Biden’s DHS officials were clearly not vetting the people they allowed to legally enter the country and even become U.S. citizens, she said.
“Not only did Biden fail the American people by leaving our borders wide open to criminals, but he also legally allowed them to gain status and citizenship to terrorize our communities,” McLaughlin said.
Video of the incident showed the 12-year-old Texas Colts players in light blue jerseys running frantically for cover as bullets flew past them.
“I’m going to try to not get emotional, but I’ll never forget their little faces during that moment,” Colts head coach Alex Smith said in the KBTX story. “It’s scary to realize how close the kids were.”
Smith and Geisendorff told reporters they were at the field when it happened, and it’s something they’ll never forget. Geisendorff said the victim was a coach for a different team at a field across from them.
“I actually went over to the gentleman and saw him right there,” Geisendorff said. “I prayed over him. There was a gentleman that was already there and they used a belt to tourniquet his arm. Stopped the bleeding really quick.”
An adult, later identified as a coach, was struck and fell to the ground near home plate, Fox News Digital reported.
The shooting is still under investigation. The sheriff’s office initially said three people were shooting at targets in the area.
They reportedly fired weapons from a nearby pasture, but it’s unclear why they shot in the direction of baseball fields during a crowded youth baseball tournament.
Officials confirmed to FOX26 Houston that the coach was a 27-year-old man. After being treated on the scene, the coach was taken to a local hospital and released later that day.
Houston Warriors founder Andy Baize told KHOU-TV that the coach’s first reaction was to protect the children.
“He literally took the bullet for a child that was to his left, and so thankfully we avoided a major disaster,” Baize said. “Still very, very emotional over it.”
