LAWRENCE— The Indy Gladiators practice and play at the FC Pride Sports Complex in Lawrence often.
"I don’t think anybody feels unsafe," said Andrew Gold, a defender for the Gladiators.
They have to practice late at night because of field times available to them, but they've always felt safe at the complex.
Thursday night, an unexpected incident happened when a shooting out on 62nd street interrupted their practice.
"We were about to scrimmage and you know you hear a couple cars like loud driving right behind the field. Don’t think too much of it and then there was a couple of pops," recalled Gold.
The pops they heard were gunshots.
"The sound of stuff hitting off metal or skipping off the turf or whizzing past people you kind of take in the whole scene and realize what had happened. Everybody hit the deck," said Gold.
Two cars were shooting at each other while driving on 62nd Street. The bullets traveled from the road and hit two coaches and a player.
"There was 30 seconds or so where we were looking at each other like I don’t know if this is really bad or not. But thankfully it was okay," said James Pilkington, a goalkeeper on the Gladiators.
"The reality is that random stuff like this happens and it seems like its happening more often than it used to in Indy and surrounding areas," said Gold.
In the last three weeks, there's been at least three shootings in Lawrence.
RELATED | Lawrence Police adding overtime patrols amid triple shooting at park (wrtv.com)
The Lawrence Police Department has increased its presence in parks and is starting to look at the possibility of putting cameras up in those parks. Deputy Chief Gary Woodruff, with the Lawrence Police Department, says that money will have to come from the 2024 budget.
"These investigations all remain ongoing. Eventually we'll hold those responsible who are making the decision to visit deadly violence on others and those people will be called into account," said Woodruff.
