Gunshots At Center Point Football Game: Principal Comments

CENTER POINT, AL — What was supposed to be a normal Friday night football game in Center Point turned chaotic after gunfire was heard outside the Center Point High School football stadium during a game against Mortimer-Jordan.

With just a few minutes left to play in the game, gunshots were heard near Center Point High School, forcing players and spectators to the ground. The game was delayed for several minutes.

CHS principal Van Phillips had some harsh words regarding the incident.

"We had a great football game, a great atmosphere for high school football until that was ruined because of some ignorant ass people in our community" Phillips said in an Alabama Media Group report. "It’s a shame that we have so much good and it takes one idiot in the group and you cannot account for the idiots in our society."

Jefferson County sheriff’s deputies already inside the stadium ran into the woods, and deputies in patrol cruisers responded to the area where the shots were believed to have been fired. No suspects were immediately found.

"We’re doing all we can in our city to make Center Point a safe place. The people who live in Center Point and have lived here for a long time are outstanding but we still have to work with the folks transplanted into our city," Phillips added. "Center Point will return to the community it has been in the past."

This was the second time in as many weeks a high school football game was disrupted in Alabama due to gunfire.

Last weekend, nine people were shot during a game in Mobile between Williamson and Leflore. Deangelo Parnell, 17, was taken into custody in connection with the shooting. Parnell, a student at LeFlore High School, faces nine counts of attempted murder, police said.