SAN ANTONIO — A man walked onto the football field with a hatchet, while children were on the field and the incident was caught on camera.
It was a scary moment for parents, coaches and children at the youth football tournament on the north side.
The nearly seven minute video made the rounds on social media, showing the tense encounter between the man holding the hatchet and an officer while parents, players and coaches watched.
“I have a 5-year-old and an 8-year-old, so that’s pretty scary to watch,” said Geneva Godines, parent.
Godines is town from Houston for the tournament. She says after watching the video of the man with the hatchet, in these times, the incident doesn’t surprise her but says it’s alarming.
“Just knowing that the possibilities are that someone is able to get in there with like a knife or hatchet or whatever, whether he had any kind of weapons, is traumatizing for children and even adults,” said Godines.
The incident happened just after 10 a.m. Sunday morning, at the football field on the campus of Somerset Academy Collegiate on Vance Jackson Road near 410.
The tournament director says a homeless man living in the woods near the stadium was upset about the sounds coming from the games.
The man walked onto the field holding a hatchet.
A coach, who didn’t want to be identified, says the man tried using the hatchet to cut some cords that were on the field.
In the video you can see the man talking with an officer and the officer has his gun pointed at him while parents in the stands began yelling at the officer to shoot him.
Then the homeless man gets distracted by other people and starts walking around and lifting the hatchet into the air.
The announcer tells all of the players to get off the field while the officer de-escalated the situation, finally getting the man to walk away to the back of the stadium.
The officer escorts the homeless man out of the stadium and then grabs the hatchet away. The officer then tackles the man while other people help.
Gondines says she thinks the officer did the safe thing by not shooting the suspect.
“No, definitely not shoot him. He could have probably tased him. I think maybe the guy should have been restrained a lot sooner, before he started swinging around,” said Godines.
It’s not clear how the man was able to enter the stadium with the hatchet.
The man was identified as 53-year-old Jeffrey Reeves. He faces a charge of unlawful carrying of a weapon in a prohibited place.