Parents recall scary moments during soccer match

The night Juan Santos-Quintero started shooting at Bingham County deputies, not far from there, a high school soccer game was taking place at A.W. Johnson Elementary School.

About 30 minutes into the game, the match was canceled.

Bruce Jolley had a son playing in the game and says he and others noticed a law enforcement vehicle drove by the field faster than usual but did not think much of it at the time.

Bruce goes on to tell Local News 8 and Eyewitness News 3, “The match started up, it had been going about 30 minutes when we heard a “pop” and one of the ladies close by said ‘Is that a gunshot or fireworks?'”

Not long after hearing the pop sound, there were more unfamiliar sounds.

“Pop, pop, pop, pop, really fast and about that time a police car rolled up around the side of the soccer field and a police officer shouted ‘Go home! Go home!'” recalls Jolley, “And we’re like ‘what’s going on?'”

They didn’t know that an officer had been shot.

“At that point, we quickly started standing up to pick up stuff to go to the carts and he quickly shouted “Get down! Get down!’ and we got on the ground very quickly, I laid on top of my wife, to protect her from whatever may be coming.” Says Bruce.

They weren’t on the ground long before law enforcement shouted another command to them.

“Run for the trees, get behind the trees.”

Behind the trees north of the soccer field are a few homes.

In one of those homes, is the family of one of the soccer players.

Karl Bame tells Local News 8 and Eyewitness News 3, “Our yard is kind of open from the schoolyard into our yard it kind of acted as a funnel from the schoolyard into our yard and there were people standing around, holding each and crying and stuff like that, just trying to comfort anybody we could.”

A little later, the law enforcement officer shouted for everyone to get inside a home or a building for safety.

Bame says, “At one point in there, after I heard the shots, I wondered if I should go in the house and get my handgun for protection, but then in all of the panic that was going on, I thought maybe if I had a handgun, I’d probably have 40 people on top of me.”

When the commotion finally cleared up and people were given the clear to go home, everyone was still shaken up, but grateful no one in the group had gotten hurt.

We spoke with a member of the Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office who offered tips on what to do in an outdoor active shooter situation.

First, stay calm, do not panic. It is tough, but keep as calm and level headed as you can be in these situations.

Second, get low to the ground, or get behind anything, bleachers, trees a car, anything to protect you.

Third, get to a safer location, but only if you can do it safely.

Fourth, be ready to protect yourself if the situation gets worse.

Fifth, if you are legally carrying a gun and threaten to use it or even send a warning shot, know your surroundings first.