Tuesday July 17 8:53 AM ET

Man Kills Son, Wife at Boy's Ballgame

ST. LOUIS (Reuters) - A night out at a children's baseball game turned tragic when a father pulled a gun and shot to death his 10-year-old son and his estranged wife, police said.

The shooting took place on Monday night at Penrose Park in St. Louis, where parents and children belonging to an area boy's and girl's club had gathered for the game.

About 7 p.m. CDT, a 34-year-old man approached the car where his estranged wife sat. The woman called to her son to hurry and get in the car, but the man shot the woman several times and then turned the gun on the boy, identified by witnesses as Matthew Toland.

The man drove away, but was later found slumped in his car with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, according to police.

The boy's baseball coach told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the parents had not been getting along and that the mother was trying to keep her husband away from their son with a court order. But father and son appeared to get along.

``He'd come to games, and Matthew would run and hug him. All he wanted to do was see his son,'' said coach Warren Scott.

``I'm shocked,'' Scott said. ``You see this on the news, and you pray it never happens to you ... I don't believe this happened to someone I've coached for two years.''

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