"We need the community's help and support. Someone knows who it is. We want that information today. We want that person in custody today. Then he can stand up as the coward he is and pay the price for the crime committed," Nutter said.
Given the "incredible nature of the crime," Nutter said he decided to dip into a $500,000 crime reward fund created by City Council earlier this year.
"We will not tolerate this kind of insane, asinine, idiotic behavior at any of our facilities," he said. "They are safe havens . . . they are off-limits to this kind of heinous behavior. We will not stand for it."
Of the gunman, Nutter said: "We're going to find your little butt and lock you up."
The mayor said that he had played at the recreation center as a child and that the gunman had broken a "principal community code" by violating its safety.
About 8:50 p.m., one minute into halftime of an over-17 semifinal game, the shooter walked down a crowded ramp leading to the court and opened fire on a crowd of people on the sidelines, police said. He hit five men and one woman, none of them players, between the ages of 18 and 23, and sent the large crowd of spectators running through the streets.
"It was crazy," said one neighbor, who heard the shots from her home across the street. "People were diving behind cars and shielding their babies."
Five of the victims were shot in the lower extremities, said Inspector Dennis Wilson of Southwest Detectives, and one man was shot in the stomach and is in critical condition. The intended target was shot in the attack, Wilson said.
Police are still interviewing victims, who all remain hospitalized.
The gunman, who is black, believed to be around 22 years old and about 5-foot-9 and 150 pounds, escaped the court through a hole in a fence, police said.
