PLEASANTVILLE, N.J. (AP) — Five men, including the alleged gunman, have been charged in connection with a shooting at a New Jersey high school football game that left two people seriously wounded, prosecutors said Saturday.
The shooting Friday night at a packed game in Pleasantville, near Atlantic City, sent fans and players frantically running for safety.
A 10-year-old boy was wounded and is in critical condition, while a 27-year-old man remains hospitalized in stable condition will be undergoing surgery. A 15-year-old boy was also was treated for a graze wound.
The shooting happened at about 8:30 p.m. during the third quarter of a playoff game between the Camden Panthers and the Pleasantville Greyhounds. The stands were packed to watch the Greyhounds, which won its first division title in 43 years this season.
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 in Pleasantville, near Atlantic City.
“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.
Diego said his friend, a retired paramedic, gave first aid to the young boy who was shot.
“He applied pressure to the little boy’s wounds on his neck, trying to slow down the bleeding until the ambulance could come up,” Diego said.
The wounded boy was flown by helicopter to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The adult victim was taken to AtlanticCare Regional Medical Center in nearby Atlantic City.
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