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Shots fired at youth football practice
By Joe Gorman
youngstown
Police reports said someone in a car fired six shots toward a group of cheerleaders and junior football players for the Youngstown Little Chargers on Thursday at Oakland Field.
No one was injured, and the president of the group, Ronnie Casey Jr., said the players and cheerleaders were too far away from the gunfire to be in danger of being hurt. He said the Little Chargers have been in existence for two years and have practiced at Oakland Field, 1801 McCartney Road, on the East Side and never have had any trouble there.
Police reports said the cheerleading coach told police she noticed a white car with two men inside passing on North Blaine Avenue about 7:40 p.m. near the old WHOT radio station as practice was finishing up. When it drove past the field, someone in the car fired six shots at the concrete bank of stands.
Officers searched the area but could find no shell casings, reports said.
Casey, who was with another Chargers team that was scrimmaging at Mary Haddow Field at the time of the shooting, but drove to Oakland Field once he was notified, said he thinks the shooting was a random act — but that does not make it easier to understand.
“I’m trying to put my head around what it was about,” Casey said. “We can’t even explain stuff like that.”
Casey said he has been coaching for 15 years and never has had anything like that happen at any sort of team function he was at. He said it saddens him because he and the other football and cheerleading coaches are all volunteering their time to help kids and make the city a better place to live, and someone for no apparent reason interrupted their practice with gunfire.
“Guns and kids don’t mix,” Casey said. “I’m happy that nothing happened to anyone out there.”