What This Story Is About
Hundreds of kids were evacuated from the soccer fields at the Lebanon Sports Complex Saturday morning after a youth soccer coach reported hearing a bullet “wiz by his head” during a game.
Why It Matters
One parent says he’s glad no one was hurt, and he hopes the incident will be a safety reminder for gun owners.
What Happens Next
Authorities searched the turf and didn’t find any bullets. No one was injured in the incident.
LEBANON, Tenn. (WSMV) – Hundreds of kids were evacuated from the soccer fields at the Lebanon Sports Complex Saturday morning after a youth soccer coach reported hearing a bullet “wiz by his head” during a game.
According to a Lebanon Police report, an off-duty Wilson County Sheriff’s deputy who was providing security for the games said he heard multiple gunshots at about 11:30 Saturday morning.
The report states multiple witnesses also reported hearing the shots and some said they heard what they believed to be rounds pass near their heads and hit the ground in front of them.
Sheriff’s deputies and Wilson United Soccer Club staff immediately cleared the fields where hundreds of kids were playing.
Dylan Arthur told WSMV he’d just dropped his family off at the fields when he got a heart-stopping call from his wife.
“As I’m leaving Walmart, my wife calls me, says that there’s been gunfire,” Arthur said. “Somebody heard a bullet kind of whiz by them, and they’ve cleared the fields out. And they’re thinking it’s hunters back in the field, possibly, you know, shooting maybe where they’re not supposed to.”
Arthur says by the time he got back to the field, parents and kids were sheltering behind the Sports Complex building, but they seemed to have calmed down.
“They had been like, I think it was only like one shot or maybe two, and they were like, ‘Oh, it’s hunters. It’s not, not anything worse,’ so, you know, people kind of calmed down and were just more, hey, what’s going on?” he said. “Are we going to go ahead and cancel? You know, especially if the hunters are going to be back out there, how are we going to prevent this from happening? Because, you know, accidents do happen.”
Sheriff’s deputies and Lebanon Police officers both searched the turf and didn’t find any bullets. No one was injured in the incident.
According to the police report, deputies spoke with three turkey hunters on the nearby Walnut Grove Road who were carrying shotguns, but determined they weren’t responsible for the shots heard at the soccer fields.
The Lebanon Police report states the sheriff’s office “cautioned them about safe shooting and left without doing a report.”
“Gun ownership is a responsibility, and that’s one thing they teach you is like, hey, you’ve got to take ownership and be responsible for it,” Arthur said. “People who aren’t doing that are putting everyone else, including themselves, in danger.”
Arthur said he’s glad no one was hurt, and he hopes the incident will be a safety reminder for gun owners.
“It’s out in the county, and people are doing what they’re going to do, but, hopefully people are more mindful on like, hey, there’s a soccer field over here, a football field, or, hey, there’s a school or, you know, there’s a walking trail over in this direction.”
Wilson United Soccer Club said the games resumed within about an hour after the evacuation, once law enforcement determined it was safe.
“We are forever grateful for the men and women of the Lebanon Police Department and Wilson County Sheriff’s Office for their swift and decisive actions taken to protect everyone at the complex that morning,” Wilson United Sporting Director James Branch said in a statement to WSMV.
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