Shots Fired after Fight at Gulfport Sportsplex

Shots fired at the Goldin Sportsplex in Gulfport has left the community with concerns. A soccer coach says after last night’s dangerous incident his team will no longer use the complex’s fields.
A fight escalating into gun shots at Goldin Sportsplex in Gulfport, home to the same fields a club soccer team full of 10 and 11 year old kids practice. Coach Russ Carothers said, “If I’ve got a soccer team of 14, 15, 16 players out there running around, how easily could that bullet hit one of my players?”
Video from Facebook shows the fight and its crowd dispersing after the shots were fired. When Gulfport police arrived on scene, a handgun was found on property, worrying some Gulfport residents who use the fields, parks, and walking path at the sportsplex.
Carothers and his team were practicing at the sportsplex just hours after police responded to the situation. He says they had no clue about the violence that had just taken place there. “I did have the kids’ safety at risk and I realized then that I’m no longer going to come out here.”
Carothers says this is not the first time an incident like this has happened at this sportsplex. “Frankly, I’ve had to call the cops three times. Two of them were those gang style fighting incidents, another one was just a weirdo.”
Carothers says the Goldin Sportsplex has excellent fields, but a lock and a gate are not enough to keep his team safe here. A soccer club with over 2,000 kids and already low on fields to play on in Gulfport, the incident has left his team without one more place to play and a question: “The problems are serious enough to where one day, someone may be killed by that gunshot. Is that what it’s going to take,” said Carothers.