From The Tribune staff reports
TRUSSVILLE — A reported assault incident at Hewitt-Trussville High School (HTHS) gym lead to a weapons arrest on Saturday, March 12.
According to the Trussville Police Department (TPD), officers were notified of an assault at the HTHS gym that stemmed from a disagreement during a basketball game. A witness stated the 21-year-old assault suspect left the building, went to the parking lot and returned to the gym with what appeared to be a gun in his pocket.
The suspect then walked to the 25-year-old victim and struck him in the face with a closed fist before he was reportedly instructed to leave and fled the scene with two other men in a white Honda Accord.
Trussville police were alerted to the incident. While responding to the call, two officers spotted the suspect vehicle at the Shell station on Deerfoot Parkway and approached the suspects.
Cordarius Ellis, 21, of Birmingham, who fled the scene with the assault suspect, was arrested by TPD after failing to provide a pistol permit when officers found a brown pistol lying on the passenger-side floorboard of the vehicle.
Ellis was charged with Firearms License Required and was transported to the Trussville City Jail, where he bonded out on Saturday, March 12.
According to police, Ellis is not a suspect in the alleged assault and no one had been charged with the alleged assault at the time of publication.
On Wednesday, Trussville City Schools provided a Use of Facilities Agreement showing Trussville Park and Recreation (TPR) had reserved the HTHS gym on Saturdays for youth basketball ages 6 -18.
Drew Peterson of TPR said on Thursday that there were no scheduled events at the HTHS gym on Saturday and that TPR had not used the gym at all for the current basketball season after being informed by TCS that the gym needed to be available for the school teams during the season.
“There was no approval for anyone to be in the HTHS gyms after 1 p.m. Saturday, March 12,” TCS Superintendent Pattie Neill said in a statement issued by Public Relations Supervisor Jason Gaston, on Thursday afternoon. “Our gyms are reserved for our TCS coaches first, and if the gyms are not in use by TCS teams, Parks and Recreation may request approval for gym use by filling out a Facility Usage Form. According to our records, on the day of the incident, Parks and Recreation was approved to use the gyms from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. To our knowledge, the incident happened after the approved time slot for Parks and Rec Saturday afternoon.”
Neill did not provide any additional information.