El Paso police seek man who rushed court, attacked youth basketball player on video

A 14-year-old basketball player was injured when he was tackled by a man who ran onto a basketball court during a squabble at an El Paso youth league game, police said.

The alleged basketball court assault occurred on May 16, but was not reported to police until June 18 and is the focus of a "Crime Alert" issued this week by Crime Stoppers of El Paso as police seek to identify the man involved in a scrum recorded on cellphone video, Crime Stoppers liaison Sgt. Javier Sambrano said.

The incident occurred at the Champions Factory sports complex at 6827 Market Ave., located near Hawkins Boulevard, south of Interstate 10 from Cielo Vista Mall, police said.

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The video shared by Crime Stoppers starts with at least two players appearing to get ready to throw punches when a man allegedly tackled one of the boys, who suffered an unspecified injury, police said. Chaos erupted and about 10 adults rushed onto the gym court.

A man, who had a shaved head and a torn light-blue T-shirt, was dragged off of a player on the court floor by three men in the 54-second video. The man is sought for questioning by police.

The case is under investigation by detectives from the Mission Valley Regional Command Center.

"The investigators do want to identify this gentleman in the picture and talk to him and anyone with relevant information about this case," Sambrano said.

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Anyone with information on the basketball game assault case may call the El Paso police nonemergency line at 915-832-4400 or may anonymously call Crime Stoppers of El Paso at 915-566-8477 (TIPS) or leave a tip online at cselpaso.org. Tipsters could be eligible for a cash reward if a tip leads to an arrest.