Woodland Hills’ Alonzo to Face Charges From Peters Twp Incident

By: Bruce Markey
Thursday, February 23, 2012 | 11:31 PM

The Washington County District Attorney's office announced Thursday afternoon they will prosecute 17-year old Shakim Alonzo of Woodland Hills High School after he punched Gabe Pritz of Peters Township High School during a WPIAL basketball playoff game Saturday.

Pritz fell to the ground bleeding from his ear and later received 11 stitches.

Alonzo will not be charged as an adult.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette posted this statement from the Pritz family:

The Pritz family, and especially Gabriel, is very grateful to his teammates, coaches and the Pittsburgh community for the outpouring of support shown following the injury sustained during the Peters Township- Woodland Hills basketball game on Saturday, February 18, 2012. Although we hoped this would be "old news" by this time, the continuing coverage has compelled us to issue this note of gratitude and clarification regarding Gabe's role in the incident.

No words were exchanged between Gabe and Shakim the entire game. They competed cleanly and intensely through 3 1/2 quarters of play. In Shakim's own words in his apology to Gabriel he stated, "You were a cool dude on the court I had no problem with, therefore I had no reason to hit you." The McKeesport Daily News having spoken directly to Shakim reported that "Alonzo said Pritz was not his intended target." He expressed this previously in his statement to the California University Police.

Gabe did not hear any racial slur from either team during the contest and certainly he didn't make any. He is a victim in an unfortunate incident.

We remain watchful of Gabriel's health and healing and are so grateful that he was not more severely hurt during this incident. We continue to pray for Shakim and his family as we are certain this has been a difficult time for them. And we hope the broader community can now focus on the conclusion of the WPIAL Basketball Playoffs as Gabriel just wants to get back to being a student and a basketball player. Go Indians!

Peters Township faces Pittsburgh Central Catholic on Saturday in the Class AAAA Quarterfinals at Canon-McMillan High School. The Indians will play the game without starting guard Trenton McPherson, who will sit out a mandatory one game suspension after receiving two technical fouls and being ejected when he threw a basketball at Alonzo after the punching incident.

Tags: Woodland Hills