OAKLAND, Calif. (KFSN) — Shots rang out at Oakland Tech High School, where a Fresno team, the Valley Boyz, were playing the Oakland Dynamites Sunday afternoon.
The incident left players on the Fresno Under-10 football team and their parents shaken.
The Bay Area shooting left three people injured but the Valley families were safe.
Families and players scrambled to safety.
“I just told them to drop to the ground and I just jumped on like five of them, just laid on top of them, and then once I heard the shooting stop, I picked my head up and then another six shots rang out,” said Valley Boyz Under-10 coach Francine Loya.
Oakland police said two adults and a child were shot behind the team’s bleachers.
The Under-10 players started to run across the field.
Kelvin Young and Noah Wheeler are both coaches and organization vice-presidents.
They tried to make sure the families were okay.
“We heard the shots and it was kind of like a movie. Everybody’s just panicking, running around,” said Young.
Added Wheeler: “They were traumatized. The kids were crying, they were breathing. Hysterical, panting. I was just trying to calm them down.”
The Oakland Dynamites said added security measures will be put in place to prevent further violence at games.
The Fresno kids had been enjoying the out-of-town competition until the shooting occurred.
“Kids don’t even need to be around something like this. Once you come to these events, things, whatever on the outside nature, shouldn’t even be going on here. It just hurts that it happened here,” said Oakland coach Quintrell Dotson.
The Oakland team called the incident a street beef that spilled onto the football field.
Wheeler hopes the incident doesn’t discourage any families from having their kids play for their program.
“Just keep believing in us. We hope we don’t lose any kids from this,” he said.
The Valley Boyz brought five teams in different age groups to Oakland.
Some of the boys lost their helmets and shoulder pads in the panicked moments after the gunshots. A GoFundMe has been set up for people to donate new or used equipment to replace the lost ones.
Coaches and parents will discuss the Oakland incident during Tuesday night’s practice and talk about safety measures at both home and road games.
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