Hangout Long A Trouble Spot, But Weapons Up Ante
Violence at the Sports Page Lanes is nothing new, say deputies who have worked there off-duty as security guards.
The shooting early last Saturday was one in a series of violent incidents in the past six months associated with the popular youth hangout.
One deputy who worked as a security guard at the Sports Page for six years said the number of violent incidents there is not increasing, but that the severity of those incidents is.
“They just don’t fight with their fists anymore,” said Cpl. Jim Wakefield. They bring knives and even guns to fights, he said. Wakefield also said violence is increasing on nights when deputies do not patrol the parking lot.
Sports Page manager Lance Rinard said he doesn’t know what more he can do to control violence inside the business and in the parking lot. He’s already upped the number of off-duty deputies who work on Friday and Saturday nights from one to two.
“You’re trying to associate all the violence in the Valley here, and that’s not true,” Rinard said. “We try to keep the bad kids out.”
Here are a few of the violent incidents linked to youth hanging out at the Sports Page in the past six months:
Two teenage boys were arrested Monday, Aug. 22, and charged with assault after police said they beat another teen with pool sticks. A security guard broke up the fight. The victim was taken to the hospital.
On Sunday, Oct. 23, two teenage boys were beaten and one was stabbed in the parking lot. Six friends were sitting in a car when they were confronted by eight teens who punched the driver, then stabbed him in the arm. One teen was pulled from the car, kicked and punched in the face. A Falcons baseball cap and White Sox jacket were stolen. Deputies suspect the same group of teenagers of robbing and assaulting three other boys an hour earlier near Eighth and Pines.
On Sunday, Nov. 6, a teenager was assaulted and robbed by four people as he got into a car in the parking lot. Two of his attackers ripped his Georgetown University jacket off him, but a guard retrieved it before the assailants could leave. Two 19-year-olds were arrested.
On Monday, Dec. 26, shots were fired in the parking lot. Deputies found six spent casings from a 9mm handgun. Witnesses told deputies the man who had fired the gun ran east toward Tidyman’s supermarket next door.
On Saturday, Feb. 25, Joel Mansfield was shot four times in the stomach, chest and leg in Tidyman’s parking lot, next door to the Sports Page. Jonathan Munk, 17, was arrested and faces first-degree assault charges. Deputies said Munk and three friends had been hanging out at the Sports Page before heading next-door to Tidyman’s.