Two people were injured after a shooting broke out at a high school football game in Pleasantville, New Jersey Friday night.
Breaking: As the shooting happens at the Camden/Pleasantville football game. People running, jumping fences, laying on the ground. @6abc pic.twitter.com/XzViuszadX
— Mike Nik (@6abcmike) November 16, 2019
Pleasantville HS Football player says he heard a few shots before he and teammates literally ran through this fence to get to safety. pic.twitter.com/KQxagyJpnd
— Greg Argos (@GregArgosCBS3) November 16, 2019
From the Associated Press:
When the shooting began, panicked spectators and some of the players knocked down a fence in their haste to escape the confines of the field. Some children were separated from their parents, and other parents held babies and young children tight to keep them from being run over by those fleeing, according to Jonathan Diego, who was at the game.
“It was mayhem, literally people coming in waves running away,” said Diego, who helped coach a Pleasantville youth football team involved in a game in which three people were shot and wounded in 2005. All survived. That same team was practicing in 2015 when a spectator was shot but survived.
One of the victims, a 10-year-old, is currently in stable condition. A 27-year-old male is also in stable condition but will need surgery. A third victim, a 15-year-old boy, had a graze wound. He was treated at a nearby hospital and released.
Five men have been charged in connection with the shooting, the Atlantic County prosecutors office.
“Unlike some of the shootings that have occurred on school premises throughout the country, this incident had nothing to do with the students of Pleasantville High School or Camden High School,” Atlantic County Prosecutor Damon Tyner said in a statement. “The venue simply presented an opportunity for criminals to pursue their own form of petty vengeance against one another. As a result, an innocent child was caught and injured in their crossfire. Our community will not be held hostage by a few idiots intent on jeopardizing our safety and the safety of our children.”
From WPVI-TV:
Thirty-one-year-old Alvin Wyatt of Atlantic City has been charged with three counts of attempted murder, unlawful possession of a weapon and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.
Four other men, according the prosecutor's office, were at the game and connected to the shootings.
Michael Mack, 27, Tyrell Dorn, 28, Shahid Dixon, 27, all of Atlantic City and Vance Golden, 26, of Pleasantville have been charged with unlawful possession of a weapon and certain persons not to possess a weapon.
Dixon is also charged with eluding.