The layout of Aspen Hill Park, a cluster of fields in suburban Washington where White Oak played its home games, invites crowd participation. There are no bleachers, and the field isn't roped off from spectators. Parents press together along the sidelines and lean into the playing field.
Watching Pop Warner football can make for a long day. There were six games strung together that September day, beginning with the 5-to-7-year-olds at 9 a.m. and ending with the 11-to-15s at dusk. Parents and coaches convoy to road games together and sometimes stay all day.
The day started poorly for the Gators and didn't get better. They lost their first game, then the second, and the third and the fourth. Nobody could remember the Gators ever losing all six games in a day.
Then McCown's team lost a rough fifth game during which a White Oak player had to be carried from the field with a severe leg injury. By then, it was late afternoon, and the temperature had climbed above 80 degrees. Many in the Gators contingent grumbled that the referees were favoring the home team. Coaches considered protesting the game. Gators parents interspersed screams of complaint against the referees with loud cheering for their kids.
The Gators coaches and fans didn't back off during the sixth and final game of the day; the White Oak side had also begun questioning the officiating. With several minutes to go and the Gators losing yet again, referee Darren Brown had heard enough and called the game.
And that's when Aaron McCown either committed an unpardonable sin - particularly for a youth coach - or became a victim of mistaken identity.
The details are in dispute. A police report says an enraged McCown told Brown, "I have something for your a - -" before running to a pickup truck to grab a black bag allegedly containing a gun.
Several people, including Brown, called 911, and Brown started to head off the field.
"He was walking away by himself, and I told him to stay," said Wills, the White Oak director. "I said, `If you're by yourself, they can jump on you.'"
Montgomery County park police arrived and began trying to find the gun.
"Everybody from White Oak said, `Check the red truck' - my truck - because they said they saw someone go to my truck," said Nate Ellerbe, McCown's co-coach.
