17-Year-Old Charged In Freedom High School Football Game Shooting

WOODBRIDGE, VA — A 17-year-old boy has been arrested in a shooting that injured two teens at the Aug. 27 Freedom High School football game, authorities announced Saturday.

The 17-year-old, who is from Woodbridge but whose name was not released due to his age, was arrested Friday in North Carolina and is awaiting extradition to Virginia, Prince William County police said.

He is charged with one count of aggravated malicious wounding, one count of attempted aggravated malicious wounding, two counts of the use of a firearm in commission of a felony, one count of robbery, one count of discharging a firearm in a public place, and one count of assault by mob, police said.

The shooting happened about 9 p.m. on Aug. 27 in the parking lot at Freedom High School after the football game was ended early due to rain, police said. A 14-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy were injured; authorities said the girl was grazed in the foot and the boy was struck in the upper body, and neither injury was believed to be life-threatening.

Police said the investigation showed the shooting happened after a fight in the parking lot between two groups of people where one group, which included the 17-year-old, demanded and took money from people in the other group.

At one point, the suspect brandished a firearm and shot into a nearby crowd, hitting the 14- and 15-year-old victims, police said. Neither victim was involved in the original altercation, they said.

Detectives with the Prince William County Violent Crimes Bureau obtained juvenile petitions against the 17-year-old, who was found and arrested Friday by members of the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force in North Carolina, police said.