WALDORF, Md. — Newly revealed witness statements have exposed safety concerns that predated Friday’s “Bouncy House” incident at Blue Crabs stadium, which resulted in the death of a La Plata 5-year-old and left another child with serious injuries.
Following the publication of our story detailing two separate witness accounts alleging that the bouncy house attraction became airborne during a previous stadium event over a decade ago, the BayNet interviewed three new witnesses who described events that foreshadowed the tragic events of Friday, Aug. 2, at the ballpark.
One eyewitness told the BayNet that her complaints in person at a game on Aug. 20, 2022, went unanswered by the team. At that game, the witness reported safety concerns to a female member of management on-site at the stadium and provided a time-stamped photo and cell phone video showing a crowded inflatable stairs/slide attraction overrun with multiple kids at once. She stated that the bouncy house was chaotic and poorly supervised, making her concerned.
In her description of the events, she said, “Employees were on their phones and there was an overcrowding of kids going up the inflatable. That’s my son [in her video] going down with his dad because we were afraid he was going to get walked over if he went by himself.” The date of the photo and video was shown as Aug. 20, 2022, which the BayNet confirmed was the date of a home game at Regency Furniture Stadium against the Wild Health Genomes.
She also stated that she made a separate and much more recent email complaint to the team after witnessing safety concerns again last week. She provided the BayNet with a screen capture of her July 27, 2024, email addressed to the team at the info@somdbluecrabs.com email address that still appeared on the team’s contact tab on their website as of Aug. 7, 2024.
This email, sent the evening after the game against the High Point Rockers, six days before the fatal bouncy house accident on Aug. 2, received no acknowledgment or answer, according to the eyewitness, who spoke to the BayNet on condition of anonymity.
In her email to the team, the witness reported more safety concerns she witnessed that night, describing in detail how there were insufficient life jackets for the children at the park’s Bumper Boats attraction, and that staff told patrons that the life jackets were not required. She claimed that she searched her spam folder but could find no response from the team to this message.
In another account provided to the BayNet this week, two separate eyewitnesses reported being at the bouncy house on the night of the incident approximately 15 minutes before the attraction became airborne with children inside during the Aug. 2 game.
They described witnessing the stakes securing the bouncy house into the ground “become loose as the wind picked up during the game,” and both witnesses reported seeing staffers from the facility hammering the stakes back into the ground and then covering them with a cone.
These two witnesses, who were chaperones for children from their church enjoying the evening for “Faith and Family Night,” returned with the kids to their seats after witnessing this event. “The children were begging to return to the amusement area after this, but my intuition told me we should stay in our seats watching the game until the winds died down,” said one of the witnesses during a phone call with the BayNet, and the second witness quickly confirmed this account.
“We never imagined the horror which would unfold just moments later; it could not have been more than 10 to 15 minutes after we returned to our seats.” Though these two witnesses agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity, the BayNet confirmed their presence at the event in a separate conversation with the pastor of their church.
These eyewitness statements expand concerns, first raised by our report detailing much older eyewitness accounts of a previous “airborne” bouncy house over a decade ago, that this tragic event may not have been an unforeseeable fluke. The management of the team and stadium is complex, as the Blue Crabs organization does not own the stadium facility, but it is owned by the Charles County Government.
In attempts to get a reaction or comment regarding these witness statements before publication, the BayNet contacted Team General Manager Courtney Knichel several times. Each time, she responded to our request for comment promptly, but only to direct us to the Chief of Media Services at Charles County Government, Jennifer L. Harris.
We received a response from Harris on Tuesday telling the BayNet that an investigation had been launched, managed by the Charles County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) and the Maryland Department of Labor and that she had nothing else to add at this time.
Media Relations Specialist Diane Richardson of the CCSO confirmed to the BayNet that an investigation had been opened into the incident by the Sheriff’s Office but emphasized this is standard procedure when there is a fatality and directed us to the Maryland Department of Labor Director of Communications and Media Relations Jamie Mangrum, who had not yet returned phone calls or emails in the 24 hours after our request for comment.
Neither the Sheriff’s Office nor the County Government would confirm when asked if the results of the investigation would be made public, or how long the investigation may take.
The BayNet is continuing to develop this story to ensure the public remains informed of these inquiries and is actively seeking more information.
Contact our news desk at news@thebaynet.com.
