Times Staff Report

A Roosevelt High School football player was shot in the leg about 4 p.m. Friday in a Roosevelt parking lot, Roosevelt head football coach Kennedy Hannah said.

The shooting caused the school to postpone Friday night's scheduled game against Hammond's Gavit High until 1 p.m. today, and the game will be played at Gavit, coaches from both schools said.

Injured was Kenyatta Nathan, Hannah said. The 6-foot, 212-pound senior is an offensive lineman and a linebacker for the Panthers.

Hannah said the incident "wasn't as bad as things got out to be. I won't say it was a drive-by. It was a shooting. It was a big misunderstanding. We've got things under control. ... One of my players got hit. He was over in the parking lot. He did get hit. I have no idea who did the shooting."

Hannah said he believed Nathan was taken to Methodist Hospitals Northlake Campus.

The hospital refused to release a condition report on Nathan late Tuesday or even say if he remained hospitalized.

Sgt. Michael Jackson of the Gary Police Department said he could verify there had been a nonfatal shooting Friday afternoon, but he had no other information. Efforts to reach commanders and the departments' public information officer were not successful.

Two other shootings have marred Gary prep football history

Sept. 28, 2001: Gunfire in the parking lot of Roosevelt High School ended a football game between the Panthers and Hammond Clark. The shots were fired with 10:27 left in the fourth quarter of the Roosevelt homecoming, according to witnesses at the game.

Nobody was believed to have been injured, but two ambulances were on the scene according to Pam Henry, mother of Clark player Arick Henry.

"I was on the field playing, and I just hit the ground," Arick Henry said. "All the people in the stands were running. All I had on my mind was I wanted to get out of there. I wasn't thinking, I was running.

"It was a once-in-a-lifetime thing. All the cheerleaders were crying on the bus."

Oct. 10, 1997: A pregnant teen,, Kellie Franklin, 18, of Gary, was killed by a stray gunshot during the Lew Wallace High School homecoming football game. Mahogany Mead, 15, of Merrillville, was shot once in the face, but survived.

Gustavo McQuay, 20, was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and two counts of attempted voluntary manslaughter in the shootings and sentenced to 30 years in prison.