Police investigate gunshots during high school football game

Clark County School District police Sgt. Bryan Zink said a fight broke out between juveniles in the school’s parking lot at 6600 W. Erie Ave., near South Rainbow Boulevard and West Erie Avenue, near the end of the football game between Sierra Vista and Desert Oasis.

“Someone fired a firearm into the air and fled the scene,” Zink said in a text to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “School District police officers who were working the game along with Las Vegas police officers secured the area and to assess if anyone was injured.”

No injuries were reported.

“No suspect in custody at this time,” Zink said, adding police are continuing to follow up on leads.

Anyone with information is asked to report tips to the school district’s SafeVoice system.

The shooting raised safety concerns among parents who attended the game.

Christopher Wagner said he was picking up his child at the school when he learned of the melee and gunfire. He wrote to Gov. Steve Sisolak over the weekend, asking for more safety and security at school events.

“A mob of students gathered in the parking lot of Desert Oasis High School and began fighting, but not just a teenage fight,” Wagner wrote in the letter. “It was an out-and-out brawl, with a mob mentality and CCSD (police) had to deploy pepper spray to regain some minimal control. These students had no concern for the safety of others, nor did they have any respect for law enforcement. It got so out of hand that CCSD had to call metro in for backup.”

Wagner said video from the fight shows someone fired “at least six shots into the air. It was at this moment that the crowd dispersed. The upsetting part is it was the firearm that assisted the breakup, not the police.”

Wagner also said during a phone interview Tuesday that he was frustrated with a lack of communication from the school district about the shooting. He said he received only an emailed letter from the school a day later about the episode. The letter to parents from Principal Jennifer Boeddeker said “we had a situation where individuals were involved in an altercation after the football game.”

“At some point shots were fired in the air. Fortunately, no one was injured. Police are investigating,” Boeddeker wrote. “Please take this opportunity to discuss school safety with your child.”

The letter also encouraged parents to talk to their kids about reporting safety concerns to adults, referenced the school’s code of conduct and provided information about how to contact police.

Wagner said the letter didn’t tell the whole story.

“Their response was inadequate and left out credible and important details,” Wagner said. “Nowhere in their response did they speak of the magnitude of the mob. They did not mention that a chemical agent was used, nor was their timeline correct. They only said that the incident happened after the game was out, which is untrue and disingenuous.”

Las Vegas police said Tuesday they also responded to the school to assist in the investigation but that their officers did not use pepper spray, spokesman Misael Parra said. Parra said an investigation is ongoing.

Contact Glenn Puit by email at gpuit@reviewjournal.com. Follow @GlennatRJ on Twitter.