An 18-year-old high school basketball player from West Virginia is facing multiple felony charges after allegedly elbowing an opponents multiple times, including once in the face and breaking another young man’s nose during a game.
Gage Ketterman of Bowden, who plays for Harman School, was arrested last Monday following an incident that occurred during a February 27 basketball game between Harman and Union High School, according to court documents.
West Virginia State Police were notified of the alleged assault after a woman from Elk Garden contacted authorities to report that her 17-year-old son had been “elbowed in the face” during the game.
The mother told police that her son suffered a broken nose that bled “profusely” for more than four hours, requiring treatment at Garrett Memorial Hospital.
Investigators reviewed multiple video recordings of the game including one which allegedly showed Ketterman “forcefully swinging his elbow directly into the face” of the Union High School player. The footage captured other incidents where Ketterman appeared to repeatedly hit opposing players in the back of the head, police said.
In one segment of the video, authorities noted that Ketterman could be seen “wiping something off the elbow he had just used to strike” the injured player.
After examining the evidence, officers determined that Ketterman’s actions appeared “intentional and criminal malicious in nature.” Because Ketterman was legally an adult at the time of the incident, police issued three warrants for his arrest – one for malicious assault related to the broken nose and two additional warrants for attempted malicious assault.
Ketterman was taken into custody and released the same day after posting a $12,500 bond, according to records from the West Virginia Magistrate Court system.