Fight between Hugo parents lead to stadium shooting, police say

Thursday, April 6th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

HUGO, Okla. (AP) -- A woman fired a single gunshot Thursday at another mother attending an elementary track meet, wounding a third woman just feet from about 25 second graders, police said.

The shooting took place just before noon in this far southeastern Oklahoma town in a stadium packed with about 500 elementary students and their parents, officials said.

None of the children was hurt, and the woman's injury was not believed to be life-threatening.

"God himself was the only one that kept any of those kids from being hurt," Police Chief Layton Cox said.

Police arrested Sonya Bostic, 33. They also were questioning the woman with whom she allegedly had a long-running dispute,35-year-old Ruthie Pearl.

Cox said an argument broke out between the women's two teen-age daughters in the stands filled with people attending the annual Olympic-style field day. The women then got involved in the argument in the stands at the 45-yard line.

That's when one of the women produced a small-caliber gun, he said.

"People recognized a gun and off they took," he said.

Virginia Biggers, 33, was attempting to flee when she was struck once in the buttock and was taken to Choctaw Memorial Hospital for treatment. Cox said Bigger would be transported to a Paris, Texas, hospital to have the bullet removed, he said.

An officer already was at the school event when the shooting took place, Cox said. The officer approached the woman, who was still pointing the gun, and disarmed her, he said. The gun held no other bullets.

One child was hurt slightly in the crowd's panic to get away, he said, but her injury did not require hospital treatment.

Superintendent Dwight Davidson said children were taken by bus back to the elementary school. Counselors were being made available to them and other spectators.

Cox said the dispute between the two families had gone on for at least two years. He said police had responded to calls at their homes and other public locations. He did not know if either side had been arrested previously.

When the officer reported the shooting, Cox said his first thought was "Columbine," referring to the Colorado school massacre. He had a different reaction when he learned that adults were suspected.

"To be honest, as a parent myself, I was furious," said Cox, whose child attends school in another district.