The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office is looking for the suspects involved in the Saturday afternoon shooting during youth football games at Bellview Park that left one man dead and another injured. Sheriff Chip Simmons said the shooting happened after an earlier altercation at the park and parties returned in masks with guns to target the individual killed in the gunfight.
“We cannot have this,” Sheriff Simmons said at Tuesday afternoon press conference, where he was flanked by county commissioners Jeff Bergosh and Lumon May, County Administrator Wes Moreno, School Superintendent Tim Smith and County Parks & Rec director Michael Rhodes.
To help investigators identify the suspects, the sheriff asked those attending the football games at Bellview to help because the suspects and victims were involved in a disturbance earlier in the day at the park.
“A lot of people are videotaping their kids’ football games,” said Simmons. “This disturbance was not a quiet disturbance. So I know that there are people that heard the disturbance, and there are likely people that turn their video camera on to that disturbance because this is what we think happened–the people that were involved in the disturbance, two of them left and came back with guns.”
He continued, “So we ask anyone that was there, if they had a video, to please let us know. Even if it’s beforehand, even if it’s just passing by, even if it’s of a touchdown, you might have some people in the background.”
As with other shootings, the sheriff pleaded for the public to help. “People know who was fighting, but they, for some reason, don’t want to tell us. If you want to be part of the solution, stop defending these people. Stop defending their actions, whether they’re friends of yours, associates of yours, or family members of yours. Because if you keep your mouth shut, this stuff is going to continue.”
He added, “I’m begging you, if you went to the game, if you were at the game, or if you heard something, you can call crime stoppers. You can call our investigators.”