No. 19 ECU suspends 3 after BB gun incident

GREENVILLE, N.C. (AP) East Carolina has indefinitely suspended three football players from the team after they were cited for shooting BB guns within city limits.

Coach Ruffin McNeill on Wednesday announced the suspensions of linebacker Yiannis Bowden, receiver Curtis Burston and linebacker Markel Winters.

Greenville Police Department spokeswoman Kristen Hunter said witnesses on Tuesday saw three men in a car firing weapons toward the ground. Hunter says the incident prompted a 10-minute lockdown at a nearby elementary school.

Hunter says the three players were stopped by police, cited for discharging a weapon within city limits and released. The officers later determined the weapons were BB guns.

In a statement, McNeill called their actions ''irresponsible and dangerous.''

None of the three freshmen have played this season for the 19th-ranked Pirates.