Soccer families fear bullets at local sports complex

Kim Smith

Thursday, Oct. 7, 1999 | 11:21 a.m.

The way soccer coach Jim Canada describes it, the scene was just like those played again and again on TV after mass shootings in Littleton, Colo., and Paducah, Ky., and Fort Worth, Texas. Kids running and screaming. People diving for cover.

And while not one shot was fired and no one was killed, for those who just happened to be at Community College of Southern Nevada on Cheyenne Avenue Saturday, it was scary enough that they don't want to experience anything like it again.

Canada's 12-year-old son, Dustin, is a soccer player for the Nevada South Youth Soccer League. On Saturday, he and his parents and siblings were watching two teams battling it out on the soccer field next to the college while waiting for his game to start.

Lots of other families were there, too, sitting in bleachers and standing on the sidelines. Sitting under a tree nearby was Bobby Musser, another 12-year-old waiting to play. With him was his dad, federal probation officer Bob Musser Sr., his mom and twin 9-year-old sisters.

Suddenly, at around noon, there was sheer pandemonium.

"I heard the coaches yelling 'Go! Go! Go! and all of these kids started running in all directions," Musser said. "We had 30 people laying behind bleachers so they wouldn't get hit by any stray bullets."

The panic began when at least six North Las Vegas police officers jumped out of their vehicles, grabbed their shotguns and surrounded a Landau Street house adjacent to the soccer field.

Eventually four people came out of the house, but no one was arrested, Musser said. The police officers left about 30 minutes later.

Donna Canada said that at first parents were in a panic trying to snatch up the smaller children who couldn't run fast enough. Then, they waited anxiously behind whatever cover they could find.

"It was scary, very scary," Donna Canada said. "A lot of us were crouching down behind trash cans and trees."

North Las Vegas Police Lt. Chris Larotonda said officers were called to the house on a family disturbance call. The caller reported a woman in the residence had a gun. No arrests were made and a report was taken, he said.

What's aggravating, the Mussers and Canadas said, is a similar incident happened last year, possibly at the same house. That time, they said, shots were actually fired.

"I really think that the soccer leagues are forced, because of a lack of soccer fields, to schedule games at locations that are unsafe for kids to play," Musser said.

Gary Marrone, president of the Las Vegas Premier Soccer Club, agreed with Musser. In fact, he said he intended to notify the Nevada South Youth Soccer League today that the 13 teams that make up his club, approximately 200 kids, will no longer play at that location.

"I'm not going to forfeit the kids' lives for a soccer game," Marrone said. "I don't care what the repercussions are. If we forfeit the rest of the season (about 16 games), so be it."

Marrone said not only are there not enough fields with lights in the Las Vegas area, but too many of the fields are located in dangerous neighborhoods.

The field at the community college is one example, but there's another field near Carey Avenue and Donna street that is scary, too, Marrone said.

Paul Vilardo, who was at both college campus incidents, agreed that the Donna Street field is just as bad. His son, Jeremy, was supposed to play there a couple of weeks ago.

"We got lucky, a thunderstorm chased us out of there before any gunshots did," Vilardi said.

Even the kids don't seem to mind if they forfeit some games, Marrone said.

"The kids are scared. They don't want to play" at those fields, Marrone said.

Vilardi said the players lose soccer balls all of the time when they play at the college because they are too scared to cross the street to get them if they get loose.

"The police had their guns drawn on Saturday and I have to believe that if they had been fired upon, they would have fired back," Vilardo said. "These kids are out there doing youth sports in a field picked by a league and they could lose their lives because of a stray bullet." Toni Prine, officer manager for the Nevada South Youth Soccer League, agreed there are too few soccer fields in Las Vegas, but she down-played the danger of playing soccer here.

"I don't want anyone to think we're taking this lightly, but there's a worry about taking your kids anywhere nowadays," Prine said. "There have been very few incidents like. Yes, there have been two in the past year, but it's just as dangerous to go to school now as it is to play soccer."

Prine said there are four soccer leagues in Las Vegas competing for the same few fields and her league alone has 2,400 players. Moreover, the number of soccer players in Las Vegas is growing 10 to 15 percent per year.

Musser said that after the police left Saturday, the game continued.

"One of my daughters spent the whole game standing behind me, peeking around, and when the ice cream man came, not a single kid went to him because they were scared to go over there," Musser said.

Vilardi said the parents were just as scared.

"Everyone kept an eye on that house wondering what was going to happen next," Vilardi said. "If a car had backfired, that field would've cleared."

Something needs to be done so "the kids aren't subjected to police action," Musser said.

"Anytime guns are involved there's an opportunity for something to go wrong," Musser said. "Stray bullets can fly anytime."

Jim Canada said he is just tired of the situation.

"It's high noon on Saturday and we've got to run for cover during a soccer game. It's ridiculous," Canada said.