Booster group cancels raffle with semi-automatic rifle prize
SOUTH LYON, Mich. — A southeastern Michigan group supporting a high school football team has canceled a raffle that included the same type of semi-automatic rifle allegedly used in a mass shooting at a Florida school.
The Detroit News and Free Press report Sunday the South Lyon Football Boosters made the decision in light of what they called “the sensitivity of the issue coupled with the untimely tragedy.” Nineteen-year-old Nikolas Cruz is accused of using an AR-15 assault weapon Wednesday to kill 17 people at his former high school in Parkland, Florida.
The organization’s second annual Wild Game Dinner was scheduled for March 1.
Head coach Jeff Henson tells The News canceling was his decision, adding “it was never our intention to offend people.”
Cruz has been charged with 17 counts of first-degree murder.
