Spectator accidentally discharges gun during youth basketball game in Gastonia

GASTONIA, N.C. — A parent was livestreaming a youth basketball game Wednesday when a gun went off.

It happened at the Erwin Center in Gastonia. Ashely Poarch captured the gunfire and the moments that followed on video.

Poarch’s biggest question is why anyone would bring a gun to a basketball game with players ages 13 to 15. She said the shot was fired close to their bench and near the players waiting to go out on the court.

“Our team was playing really good,” Poarch said.

Poarch is a proud mom who streamed her son’s game on Facebook Live. The livestream captured the moment when a good game turned bad.

“Oh my God!” you can hear.

“You could hear the gun,” Poarch said. “The whole place shook.”

Her son, Jazper Mathesion, was on the court when it happened.

“I instantly knew what it was,” he said.

“We just sat still. We froze,” Poarch said.

She said she was told the gun fell out of the pocket of a coach who was there for another game. He was sitting near the players’ bench.

“He was two seats down from actual children,” Poarch said.

She took a photo of the bullet hole in the gym floor, saying the shot hit there and bounced off a wall. No one was hurt.

Police arrived quickly and seized a gun. Her husband took a photo of the weapon, which Poarch said didn’t belong there.

“I just don’t understand why you would have a fully loaded gun with no safety on it,” she said.

Police said they charged 45-year-old Wallace Montgomery with weapons law violations. Poarch said there will be no more recreation league games at the Erwin Center.

City officials were in discussions on Thursday about what to do to keep this from happening again.

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