Crowd Evacuated after Homecoming Game

NSO – NEWS RFELEASE

Police evacuated the crowd at the end of the homecoming football game at Park Center Senior High in Brooklyn Park Friday evening, blaming “unruly teens” who were trying to enter the stadium.

The incident happened at 7 p.m., with Brooklyn Park Police Department saying its officers “were concerned about large groups of unruly teens and reports of some of the teens possibly in possession of a firearm.”

No gun was found anywhere on the grounds or on anyone’s person, but police say they “found groups in the stands becoming unruly and verbal altercations occurring.”

They also found groups of people who had been denied access to the stadium were trying to climb the fence to get in.

Police called in help from the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Department, and then made the decision to evacuate all spectators from the stands.

The game was allowed to finish, with Park Center losing 14-24 to Blake/Hope Academy/Minnehaha Academy/St. Paul Academy-Summit.

Police say officers stood in the parking lot observing everybody as they left.

It’s the third incident in consecutive weeks that has disrupted a football game in the Twin Cities. The previous Friday two people were shot by a Richfield High School student outside the football stadium, while the previous week a brawl broke out at an Edina High School game, prompting a large police response.