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An emergency town hall meeting with county and state leaders as well as law enforcement was held Tuesday night to discuss a public safety plan
MONTGOMERY VILLAGE, Md. — A shooting near a youth football game in Montgomery Village Saturday night left a 17-year-old boy wounded and players, coaches and families shaken.
“This has kind of galvanized us, man. It really has," said Brice Jackson, the Commissioner of Montgomery Village Football who was on the field when shots were fired.
Jackson says his league, State Sen. Nancy King, Delegate Gregory Wims, and law enforcement were among the many to appear at an emergency meeting held to discuss the shooting Tuesday night.
“Obviously the patrols are going to increase in the area with the kids, they assured us of that," said Jackson. "We're working to see what can be done as far as their presence and how to set that presence, so to speak, because you’ve got to think, with eight teams, you can imagine how many people are out there.”
Jackson says this league is more than just football to some of the kids in his program.
“If they don't have this, it's nothing but the streets because they're cutting all of the programs for the kids, they're closing the rec centers," he said. "What else are they going to do? What else are they going to do? Except stuff like what happened Saturday.”
Jackson says Montgomery Village Football won’t be practicing or playing any games this week or weekend. He’s still deciding if or when the teams will return to South Valley Field to play a game this season.
“We want to stay, and the community wants us to stay, the Senator wants us to stay, Montgomery Village Foundation wants us to stay, the police want us to stay. Everybody wants to stay, so now we just have to put a contingency plan together to make it work," said Jackson. "It’s just like I told my coach, it's time for us to be the leaders that we signed up to be. That doesn't necessarily mean calling plays, you're going to have to go to some of these kids and talk to them."
WUSA9 reached out to Montgomery County Police for comment but has not heard back.
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