A 11-year-old youth football player is now facing charges after he allegedly shot two of his teammates during practice this week in Florida.
According to TMZ the incident took place at Apopka (FL) Northwest Recreation Center around 8:20 aPM on Monday. Authorities announced that the 11-year-old got into an altercation with two of his teammates who were both 13-years-old and after the argument began to get intense the 11-year-old went and got a gun out of his mothers car. “[The altercation] continued into the parking lot where this juvenile had access to a firearm in his mother’s car,” Apopka police chief Mike McKinley said during a press conference on Tuesday.
McKinley then states that the 11-year-old grabbed the gun and fired one that shot that hit two of his teammates. “Fired one shot,” McKinley said, “and that one shot hit both victims.” McKinley says the 11-year-old is now facing one count of second-degree attempted murder and they are investigating to see if more charges will be added. The department is also looking at potentially pressing charges against the parents who left the gun in a place the child could reach it. “It is a crime to allow your children to have access to your firearm in an unsecured box,” Chief McKinley said.
“Nobody wants to arrest an 11-year-old, by any means, but based on our investigation we feel those charges are warranted.”
The two victims who received gunshot wounds from the young suspect luckily survived the shorting and are currently recovering.
It’s a lot of crazy things that have been happening in sports. As we previously reported, an Atlanta high school coach was caught on television punching one of his players in the stomach during a game. In the viral footage a coach at Benjamin E. Mays High School can be seen hitting the player in the stomach and the young teen can be seen stumbling back holding his stomach. The incident reportedly occurred during the first quarter of the game and according to Atlanta News First, the coach was removed from the sidelines by an Atlanta Public Schools police officer and placed in custody and now facing a simple battery charge. A spokesperson also told the news outlet, that the person was a “lay coach,” which means they are a coach who does not teach at the school or hold a teaching certificate.