Sep 8, 2009 10:44 pm US/Central
Coach Shot By Player Talks About Brush With Death
Glynn Hall: 'God's Not Through With Me Yet'
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Deangelo Williams is accused of shooting his coach during an adult baseball league game over the weekend.
Chicago Police
He benched his player during a baseball game, and for that, he was chased and shot four times. The coach spoke with CBS 2's Mike Parker about what was going through his mind while the player stood over him, with a gun pointed to his head.
It's amazing the man survived. One witness to the frenzied attack Sunday afternoon says it was a miracle, that angels must have been attending the victim, Coach Glynn Hall.
Hall is not disputing that, and he's also giving credit to a paramedic playing ball that day for helping to save his life.
"It was a small gun. I didn't get a real close look because I was trying to run," Hall said.
The coach of the Chicago Community League Cardinals says he knows he is fortunate to be alive.
His brush with death took place on the ball field Sunday at Abbott Park.
Glynn Hall says after he pulled 21-year-old pitcher Deangelo Williams out of a game, his young player lost it.
"Then he threatened to kick my butt," Hall said. "Then he said, 'That's all right, I got something for you.'"
Hall says Williams then pulled a small handgun from a bag and started shooting at him as the other players on the field ducked for cover.
As Hall ran from the man with the gun, he was hit three times at first: in the arm, the back and the shoulder. Then the fourth shot hit him in the neck and he fell to the ground.
"I was just devastated. I thought I was dead, and I'm lying there on the ground and I'm steady hearing clicking, and I'm looking up at him," Hall said. "The gun was empty, thank God, and he ran off. I got up and I saw blood all over my uniform and I'm like, 'My God, am I gonna die?' It's inevitable but nobody wants to be forced out of this world."
The coach was rushed by ambulance from the pandemonium of the ball field to a hospital.
"The only thing I thought about when I was riding in that ambulance was my children, my five children and my loved ones, my church members," Hall said.
He's talking about the New Philadelphia Missionary Baptist Church on the South Side where he teaches Sunday School, and where prayers have been offered for his recovery.
"And it's a miracle he didn't shoot me in the head," Hall said. "He may have tried. The bullet is lodged right here in the back of my neck. But for some reason I'm still here. God's not through with me yet."
Coach Hall faces more surgery to remove two slugs still lodged in his body but he's recovering nicely.
He says he has no idea why a young man he was mentoring and fond of would show such rage. So does he have mixed feelings about prosecuting the young suspect?
"No. He tried to kill me," Hall said.
The suspect, 21-year-old Deangelo Williams, is being held without bond. He's been charged with attempted murder.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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