BOSTON (AP) — The Boston Red Sox suspended Jarren Duran for two games on Monday without pay after he shouted a homophobic slur to a fan behind home plate who heckled him in a loss to the Houston Astros a day earlier.
The exchange was caught on a live microphone during the broadcast when Duran — who was 0 for 2 with two strikeouts at that point in the game — was at the plate in the sixth inning. A fan at Fenway Park can be heard shouting “Tennis racket! Tennis racket! You need a tennis racket!”
Duran turned his head toward the fan and replied: “Shut up,” followed by a curse word and the slur.
Duran issued an apology through the team Sunday night, saying he “used a truly horrific word” and felt “awful.”
Standing in the middle of the clubhouse before he answered questions Monday, Duran started by apologizing to fans that he said reached out to him and said: “they were disappointed in me.”
“I’m sorry for my actions, and I’m going to work on being better,” the 27-year-old outfielder said.
“We all love Jarren,” teammate Rob Refsnyder said after hitting a walk-off single in Boston's 5-4, 10-inning win over Texas on Monday night. “He'll learn from this. We're all human. We all make mistakes, but he'll learn from this.”
President and Chief Executive Officer Sam Kennedy said the club was in touch with Major League Baseball after the game.
“It’s a really difficult day, disappointing,” Kennedy said, speaking to the media outside the clubhouse. “I’m proud of the way the organization addressed the situation, and I’m proud of Jarren for acknowledging his horrific mistake.”
Standing next to Kennedy, Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow said the team still had work to do.
“I think it is striking evidence that while we have made strides and done great work, we haven’t done nearly enough,” he said. “I think that an incident like this is an important reminder that there’s ton of progress that still needs to be made.”
Duran said the fan had been “heckling me the entire game, and I said something I shouldn’t have said.”
Duran said he immediately turned and apologized to home plate umpire Jordan Baker and Houston catcher Yainer Diaz “for my actions. They were right there, they heard me say it. I’m assuming they cut the mic because of my inappropriate word.”
Red Sox manager Alex Cora said: “There’s a lot of work to be done, and I’m here to help him out.”
Cora said he had spoken to Duran during the day.
“He made a big mistake, he’s living with it, right,” Cora said. “As a manager, I’ve got to do my job. As a person, there’s more from my end. … It’s what I can do as a person to support him and help him to be better.”
Duran had played in all of the team's games so far this season, hitting mostly leadoff and is one of the club's top players, batting .291 with 14 homers and 58 RBIs. He was the MVP of the All-Star game in Texas, the fifth Red Sox player to win the award.
He said there was no intent behind the word, and it was just “the heat of the moment.”
“I think what’s more important is what happens going forward,” Kennedy said. “We’ve worked really hard the past two and half decades to make sure that Fenway Park is a place where everyone is welcome.”
Boston said Duran’s salary during the suspension will be donated to PFLAG (Federation of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays). Duran earns $760,000 and will lose $8,172.
The exchange with the fan came after Duran was honored during a pregame ceremony as the team’s recipient of the Heart and Hustle Award, which recognizes one player per team who “demonstrates a passion for the game and best embodies its values, spirit, and traditions.”
“I think the suspension is just discipline, and we need to hold people accountable,” Kennedy said. “What I would like to see is more education, more understanding, more dialogue around the negative impact of hate speech.”
Because the team suspended him, the Red Sox were allowed to fill his roster spot.
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Boston Red Sox's Jarren Duran puts his bat down beside Houston Astros catcher Yainer Diaz after taking a walk during the sixth inning of a baseball game, Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A body found in rural southeastern Kentucky is believed to be the man suspected of shooting and wounding five people on an interstate highway, authorities said Wednesday night. The search ended with two private sleuths joining in the dramatic discovery.
Kentucky State Police Commissioner Phillip Burnett Jr. said the body located earlier in the day was believed to be Joseph Couch, of Woodbine. Authorities hoped the discovery signaled the conclusion of an intense, nearly two-week search that had area residents on edge.
“People have been in fear,” Laurel County Sheriff John Root said. “That’s not the normal here in Laurel County. So now that this has been discovered, I hope that our county can get back to what’s normal.”
A dozen vehicles were hit and five people wounded in the Sept. 7 shooting on Interstate 75 near London, a city of about 8,000 people roughly 75 miles (120 kilometers) south of Lexington.
Burnett said Wednesday night that accessories found with the body led authorities to conclude it was Couch. He had no details on the cause of death, saying that would be determined in an autopsy, but he said a weapon was found at the site. He didn't know how long the body had been there.
“We are very confident this brings the closure to the search for Joseph Couch,” Burnett said.
Root said the discovery of the body wasn't the outcome authorities wanted.
“I don’t think nobody on this stage wished that we would have found him in the condition that we found,” Root said at a news conference in London. “I’d rather he’d been alive and he could have paid for what he’s done.”
The body was found following an exhaustive search of the rugged and hilly terrain in the area where the attack happened. Teams combed 28,000 acres (11,331 hectares) in the search.
But it is a private couple who will reap a $25,000 reward for their part in the discovery.
YouTube streamers Fred and Sheila McCoy from Kentucky said they searched the area for about six days and were looking for signs of vultures in the air. Fred McCoy said he saw some near the I-75 exit Wednesday, and they followed the rough terrain down a valley. They then picked up on a bad smell.
“Hey guys, you won’t believe it, we found him, oh my goodness gracious,” Sheila McCoy said while filming the search. “Now this little area (London) can rest.”
State police troopers had searched the area all day and also noticed vultures hovering above and then detected a strong odor, Burnett said Wednesday night. While moving through the woods to locate the odor, the troopers heard voices, identified themselves and asked the others to do so, he said.
It turned out to be the McCoys, who told the troopers they also were searching for Couch.
“Almost immediately after that interaction between troopers and the McCoys, the troopers and the McCoys stumbled upon an unidentified body,” Burnett said.
The highway shootings led some schools to shut down and shift to virtual learning for several days as authorities warned residents to be extra vigilant. Schools reopened Tuesday with bolstered police security in the county where the shooting happened.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear called the shootings an “act of violence and evil.”
Authorities said the shooter fired 20 to 30 rounds, creating a chaotic scene. The five victims survived, but some suffered serious injuries.
After sending the text message vowing to “kill a lot of people” to a woman before the attack, Couch sent another saying, “I’ll kill myself afterwards,” investigators said in an affidavit. The document did not describe the relationship between Couch and the woman. However, the two have a child together but were never married, according to an attorney who handled the custody arrangement for their son, born in 2016.
Early in the search, authorities found Couch’s abandoned vehicle near the crime scene and a semi-automatic weapon that investigators believe was used in the shooting. An Army-style duffel bag that was found had “Couch” handwritten in marker, and a phone believed to be Couch’s was found without a battery.
Authorities said he purchased the AR-15 weapon and about 1,000 rounds of ammunition at a London gun store hours before the shooting.
Couch had a military background in the Army Reserve. The U.S. Army said he served from 2013 to 2019 as a combat engineer. He was a private when he left and had no deployments.
The search focused on a densely wooded area about 8 miles (13 kilometers) north of London that a state police official described as “walking in a jungle.” Aided by helicopters and drones, search teams on the ground contended with cliffs, sinkholes, caves, waterways and thick brush.
When the ground search was suspended at night, specially trained officers were deployed in strategic locations to prevent the gunman from slipping out of the area. On Tuesday, authorities said they were pulling searchers from the woods to bolster patrols in nearby communities in hopes of calming fears among residents.
As the mystery of Couch's whereabouts appeared to be solved Wednesday, the sheriff urged prayers for the shooting victims and for the suspect's family, who he said have cooperated with authorities.
“The family cannot be blamed for the misfortune that this guy’s caused,” Root said.
Associated Press writer Dylan Lovan in Louisville, Kentucky, contributed to this report.
Trees stand in wooded areas alongside Interstate 75 near Livingston, Ky., Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024, as police search for a suspect in a shooting Saturday along the Interstate. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)
This image released by Kentucky’s London Police Department shows Joseph A. Couch, a person of interest in the Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024, shootings on Interstate 75 near London, Ky. (London Police Department via AP)
Search for suspect in Kentucky highway shooting ends with discovery of body believed to be his
This image released by the Mount Vernon Fire Department shows traffic stopped during an active shooting on Interstate 75 north of London, Ky., Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024. (Camden Mink/Mount Vernon Fire Department via AP)
Search for suspect in Kentucky highway shooting ends with discovery of body believed to be his
