Football game in Century ends with guns being fired
On Saturday, April 6, following a semi pro minor league football game between the Pensacola Jets and T.C. (Tri City) Venom at Anthony Pleasant Park in Century, three shots were fired on the football field by an unknown gunman and two more shots were fired later in the parking lot. Both teams have been suspended from the Amateur to Professional Developmental Football League (APDFL) until further investigation.
Shortly after the last touchdown with the Jets winning 33 - 6, one of the T.C. Venom players blinded sided a Jet player, prompting Jets team owner Fred Barnett to pull his team out and skip the traditional end of game hand shakes on the field, according to Barnett.
“The majority of the team was coming off the field, and their team was coming across and a fight broke out between the team players,” said Barnett. “We've never had an incident like this at our field or any other. The league requires law enforcement at each game. It should not have happened. They got upset and the players on the other side jumped on our guys. During the course of the fight, we heard several shots go off, but we couldn't see anybody. Then everybody went to their cars.”
Barnett said later, after most people left the area, he heard two more shots from the home team parking lot.
“I can't say if it was a fan, a player, or someone being stupid” Barnett said. “You can't say if it was someone from one of the teams, who knows, but everyone wants to point at each other. I don't believe anyone wanted to hurt anybody, it was someone unidentified being stupid. It's a terrible thing for us, both teams suspended until the investigation is over.”
Barnett said that officers showed up at the park shortly before and when the game began but they left and cited the only reason they had come in the first place was because someone had called them due to the 'trash talk' among people there before a game.
“At no time was there an officer there for security,” said Barnett. “An officer told me they need to hire officers to be there the whole time. We did not want to be involved in something. A lot of young men whose pride has been hurt react violently, sometimes they have to retaliate and do not know how to lose well. Our program is here is to teach these young men to be more productive citizens and deal with society. Some have kids, some have family and some kids on the way. I have three active service duty men on my team. I hate it that people are saying one of the players who fired the shots.”
Barnett said in Pensacola, they are required to have security at all of their games. He said he feels there was a lot of bad sportsmanship in this incident.
“We didn't ask for the fight, they charged us, we should not be responsible for their charging at us,” said Barnett. “If there had been security in place, none of this would have happened. I want everyone to know that the sequence of events had nothing to do with the game. We came to play football. These are grown men. The security is supposed to be there to protect and keep security. It was not done, to prevent that from happening. The measures the league put in place were not followed.”
Barnett has family who lives in Flomaton he was visiting the day of the game.
He said the league has by-laws that include punishment for fighting.
“As far as the issue with this shooting, we don't know who did it, so we will suspend you both was the way it was handled,” said Barnett. “It's unfair. If security had been there, like it is required to be, this would not have happened.”
Escambia County Sheriff's Office Public Information Officer Amber Southard said the shooting is still under investigation at this time.
