A dispute between two groups from two weeks earlier sparked a shooting that injured five people during a high school football game in Alabama, a prosecutor said Tuesday.
Three teens accused of attempted murder initially entered the game between Vigor and Williamson high schools unarmed but then left and two returned with guns once metal detectors were removed from Ladd-Peebles Stadium, prosecutor Jennifer Wright told a hearing, news outlets reported.
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Jai Montrell Scott, 19, was arrested Sunday on attempted murder charges, and police are looking for 19-year-old Hezekiah Kaniel Belfon, who is wanted on the same charges. A 17-year-old juvenile also was arrested but authorities haven’t released his name.
Belfon shot five people, Wright told District Judge Sprio Cheriogotis during a bond hearing. Scott was with the other two and urged them to violence, she said.
Wright said Scott made gestures urging them to violence, Fox 10 reported.
“There’s video of him going out to the car and returning. … You can see clearly from the video,” she told the judge.
But Scott’s attorney, Dennis Knizley, said his client didn’t have anything to do with the gunfire. “Mr. Scott has no criminal history, whatsoever. No one is alleging that Mr. Scott had a gun or fired one,” he said.
The judge set bond at $250,000 for Scott -- $50,000 for each of the five counts of attempted murder.
“I don’t find many cases more serious that this one,” the judge said, according to Fox 10. “If you’re willing to shoot or spray gunfire into a crowd, you obviously don’t care about human life.”
Court records indicate that Scott will be under house arrest while out on bond, with restrictions including no contact with victims, witnesses and codefendants.
He also is to abstain from any social media.
A document filed in relation to Tuesday’s hearing also bears a note that “Mr. Scott had 0 [zero] gun and did not discharge a gun -- Mr. Belfon did shooting.”
It wasn’t clear who added the handwritten note or whether it represented an agreed fact or an assertion that may be disputed in court.
Court records indicate that the next step for Scott will be an arraignment set for Thursday.
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