10 Players Arrested After Fight At Texas High School Basketball Game

Ten high school basketball players, including three juveniles, were arrested and charged following a massive fight during a Texas varsity basketball game last week.

According to KXXV, the players from Harker Heights and Copperas Cove were issued misdemeanor charges of riot participation. Among the basketball players arrested are Terrance Lavar Carter Jr., 19, Aidan Ali Nageeullah, 17, Christopher Jermaine Pullen Jr., 17, Dequan Savales Seda, 19, Devon Keon Seda, 18, Jerry Lewis Thomas, 17, and Roderick William Pollard, 17. No information was released about the juveniles.

Police said, "A physical altercation involving athletes from both schools escalated into a nearby hallway where school and law enforcement officials intervened, causing a large crowd to move toward the altercation."

Parents from both schools are outraged and said the schools and police are "blowing the situation way out of proportion."

“Those little boys were not fighting. They weren’t rioting. They were protecting each other,” Harker Heights parent James Smith said at a school board meeting earlier this week.

Smith added "nobody stepped in" during the fight, meaning no law enforcement, referees nor coaching staff did anything to contain the fight. The video of the fight shows student athletes starting to fight at half court until ultimately swarming out of the gym. Coaches and referees are seen trying to break up the fight before it moved out of the gym.

One parent, who asked to remain anonymous, told KXXV the player who started the fight "was trying to help his friend. He wasn't trying to hurt anybody or harm anybody. None of them were."

The investigation is still underway, according to KXXV.