Barrington boys go to police after incident at open gym
Police later learn the boys may have harassed others
Three Barrington boys — two were 11-years-old and the other was 13 — stopped into the Barrington Police Station on Thursday, March 16 at about 2 p.m., and reported that one of them had been assaulted.
The boys, who were accompanied by their mothers, each alleged that they had been playing basketball inside the gym at the Bayside YMCA when a man who was shooting hoops with his daughter reportedly threw a football that struck one of the boys in the leg.
Police later responded to the YMCA and spoke to the suspect, who told officers a different story.
The man said he had been in the gym with his daughter that afternoon and started shooting hoops when the three boys finished a basketball game they had been playing. The man said the boys soon started harassing him, taking his basketball and throwing it to the other end of the gym.
The man said a YMCA staff member came into the gym and offered the boys a football as an alternative, but the boys soon took the football and began throwing it at the basket that the man and his daughter were at. The football allegedly struck the man and nearly hit his daughter.
That's when the man took the football and reportedly threw it at the boys, striking one of them in the leg.
The man apologized for his actions and said he would get assistance from staff members if the situation arose in the future.
No one was charged.
