Extra security in place after pepper spray deployed at high school basketball tourney in Wake County

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Thursday, December 30, 2021
Pepper spray deployed after crowd fight at high school basketball game
A fight among fans became so intense Wednesday night that the security on site used pepper spray to control the crowd and the game was postponed.

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- Extra security will be on hand at a high school basketball tournament held at Wake Tech Community College on Thursday.

Wednesday, two fights broke out among players and fans during two of the match ups at the John Wall Invitational Holiday Tournament. Our newsgathering partners at the Raleigh News & Observer said members of the Southern California Academy and Moravian Prep teams started fighting after their game, stretching security thin.

During the next match up between Farmville Central and Life Christian, the disturbance among fans became so intense that the security on site used pepper spray to control the crowd and the game was postponed.

Farmville Central and Life Christian finally played the game Thursday morning.

In addition to the extra security on site, organizers are reducing crowd capacity to half.

"Never happened before in the history of this tournament and not going to happen again, said Brian Hanks, a tournament organizer.