Still no word on charges against Linden football player

There is still no word whether the Union County Prosecutors Office will file criminal charges against the Linden High School football player who ripped the helmet off an opposing player from Immaculata High School a few weeks ago, and is then seen in a video hitting him in the head with it.

The player, identified as Fritz Moncion, was kicked off the team and has been suspended from school for 10 days as a result of the incident.

Linden Mayor Derek Armstead says his city is a community where everybody is trying to teach their children properly, and for the most part, there was a lot of disappointment that a high school player would be involved in this type of incident.

“I just hope...my sincere wish is that we all learn something from this," he said. "In a split second, you can make a decision and it can affect you for the rest of your life.”

Armstead says they will try to sit down with the player involved in the incident and other high school athletes “and try to let them know the importance of good sportsmanship, and not making rash decisions that can affect you and your teammates and your classmates and your city.”

The mayor said high school football players are big, strong guys, “but at the end of the day you’re still dealing with the mind of a juvenile, and again the objective here when something like this happens should be what can we learn from this and how can we move forward.”

When asked about the possibility that the Union County Prosecutors Office may still file charges in the case, Mayor Armstead said obviously he can’t speak to what the Prosecutor’s Office may or may not do.

“But I would hope that him being a juvenile, that we consider this as a mistake, and I would hope that we would use this as a learning experience," the mayor said. "I’m certainly going to do everything humanly possible to try to encourage him to move forward, to put it behind him and try to become a productive person in our society.”

Armstead adds hopefully the young man will someday look back at this situation and be able to talk about things of this nature from a very unique perspective.

“Maybe he can teach others about the consequences of making rash decisions that sometimes don’t appear to make a lot of sense, and how they can affect you and be life changing," he said.