An Ohio man has been charged in a shooting Sunday night at a youth football game at Walnut Hills High School in the Cincinnati area.
According to WLWT, court records show that Lamont Ragan has been charged with two counts of felony assault with a weapon"and one count of discharging a firearm on or near a prohibited premises after two people were shot at a pee wee football game Sunday night.
Police said the shooting was the result of an altercation between two groups of men, two of whom were struck by gunfire. The shooting happened on a secondary field that had been rented by Cincinnati United Youth Football and Cheer.
A defense attorney for Ragan, who is head coach for the West End Royals, told WLWT that Ragan was coaching when parents from the opposing team "charged the field" and Ragan "went out to protect his children."
"A fight ensued, it got out of control from there. Ragan did discharge his firearm in self-defense and defense of the children on the field," Fox said, stating Ragan legally owned the gun that was used.
Fox said that Ragan voluntarily turned himself in along with the gun that was used in the shooting.
"If he wanted to run, he would've run, but we turned him in the second we discovered there was a warrant," Fox said when requesting a bond of $10,000 at 10 percent.
Cincinnati Pastor Peterson Mingo, coach of the Evanston Bulldogs team the Royals were playing that night, rejected Ragan's story, saying it "doesn't hold water."
"Who would bring a gun to a youth event for pee wee football? There were almost 200 kids there at the time when the shots went off. Most of those kids are extremely traumatized. They cried. They screamed. They ran all different directions," Mingo said.
A judge set Ragan's bond at $200,000 on the two shooting charges and $10,000 on the discharge-of-firearm-on-or-near-a-prohibited-premises charge.
