Update on incident at White Sox ballpark

CHICAGO -- As an investigation by the Chicago Police Department continues, Scott Reifert, the White Sox senior vice president of communications, addressed the media Saturday concerning an incident at Friday’s game in which two fans suffered non-life-threatening injuries after being struck by bullets.

Reifert reiterated Saturday that there is no information to date that suggests that the gunshots were fired from inside the ballpark.

“If that happened, there would have been far different reactions from the crowd, from our security, from the CPD,” Reifert said. “We’re very proud of our security and there are layers of security. There were layers of security within feet of the incident last night so, we’ve certainly reviewed it. We do after every incident, but it’s not something we talk about publicly because it defeats the purpose. But we’re pretty confident in our security and our response team.”

Reifert opened by expressing well wishes to the two fans who were injured, one of whom was treated on the scene and released. The other fan struck also is expected to make a speedy recovery. Reifert then went on to answer why the game continued after the incident took place in the fourth inning, and why an “I love the '90s” concert featuring Vanilla Ice, Tone Loc and Rob Base was canceled postgame.

“As the CPD press release said last night, once they were on site,” Reifert explained, “they conferred with our security and the feeling was there was no active threat and that the ballgame could continue. The second question was about the concert, the postgame concert.

“That [concert] was not canceled for any security concern. It was canceled so CPD could go and investigate the area. They needed the lights to be on and they needed fans to be out of the area, so that’s why the concert was canceled. There was some confusion, kind of tying that to safety. That had nothing to do with safety.”