Cubs non-roster invitee Williams Perez involved in accidental shooting

Williams Perez, a righthanded pitcher who pitched in 34 games for the Braves in 2015 and 2016 and who was a non-roster invitee to Cubs spring training in 2017, has been involved in a shooting in his home country of Venezuela. The shooting is said to have left a man dead.

Venezuela newspaper El Impulso is referring to it as an accidental shooting, as is Marcos Grunfeld, who has reported on the incident on Twitter.

The incident took place in Portuguesa, which is a small city in Venezuela, not far from Perez’s hometown of Acarigua.

There are some further details on Grunfeld’s Twitter timeline, but they’re all in Spanish. I’ve had some of the Tweets translated by a Spanish speaker.

Translation: What they told me yesterday was that after entering, Perez gave the firearm to Quintero and it went off, unintentionally

Translation: The case is in the hands of the CICPC now because it’s being treated as a homicide. We can’t confirm whether Perez is currently being detained or not.

Translation: Police: “the firearm belonged to Williams Perez and he had his permit”

Perez, who turns 27 in May, spent the 2017 season at Triple-A Iowa, where he made 23 starts, posting a 7-12 record, a 5.01 ERA and 1.438 WHIP. He did throw a two-hit, seven-inning complete game shutout in the second game of a doubleheader on August 17, 2017.

Perez received a minor-league contract with the Cubs and a non-roster invitation to spring training this year on January 25.

That’s all the information currently available on this situation; I’ll update this post or make a new one if and when more information becomes available.