Edgecombe County deputies had to use crowd control substances to stop a fight at a high school basketball game Friday night, according to the Edgecombe County Public Schools Superintendent Andy Bryan.
Bryan said that several fights involving students and adults broke out in the gym after the North Edgecombe High School/Wilson Prep basketball game finished.
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Bryan said that deputies, who were providing security for the game, attempted to de-escalate the fights, but had to deploy a crowd control fogger to stop the fighting altogether.
One parent told WRAL News the chemicals sent her daughter to the emergency room.
"She's going to be traumatized from this for a while, because she doesn't even understand how she's watching a game one minute and the next minute, she can't catch her breath, and she didn't do anything," Paris Seward said.
WRAL News reached out to Edgecombe County Sheriff Cleveland Atkinson Jr., who said deputies were within department policy using foggers, adding that one of the deputies were punched and several body cameras were knocked off.
"We had to prevent our guns," Atkinson said. "Our body cams got knocked off. This was a violent behavior in that gym."
EMS examined a few spectators, but no injuries were reported, according to Bryan.
Bryan added that school administrators and the Edgecombe County Sheriff's Department continue to investigate the incident, which has been reported by North Edgecombe High School to the North Carolina High School Athletic Association.