A 19-year-old Columbia man has been charged with carrying a loaded weapon onto school premises after police say they found a handgun with a loaded magazine following a traffic stop tied to a Sept. 4 football game at Hickman High School. Sanji Ellis, born in 2007, was charged Friday and the case surfaces nearly a month after officers allegedly spotted him leaving school grounds in a car with a broken taillight.
Traffic Stop Near Waffle House Led to Discovery
According to the probable-cause account described by ABC17NEWS, a police officer saw a 2013 Honda CR-V with a broken taillight and no rear window leaving Hickman High School at 10:25 p.m. after the football game. Officers pulled the vehicle over near the Waffle House on Vandiver Drive and recognized Ellis as the passenger, the account states. The officer reportedly claimed Ellis regularly carried a gun, and after asking him to get out of the vehicle, allegedly found a handgun with a loaded magazine, according to court documents cited in the report.
Ellis posted a $1,500 bond, and an initial court appearance is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, per the same account. The evidence reviewed does not establish the eventual outcome of the case or confirm whether that court appearance has taken place. It also does not identify who was driving the Honda CR-V or who owned or controlled the vehicle or the firearm.
Second Gun Found on District Property in Weeks
The Ellis case comes amid a string of gun-related incidents on Columbia Public Schools property this September. A Hickman High School student was allegedly found with a gun in a backpack on Sept. 28; the gun was confiscated and the student was taken into custody by a school resource officer, the district said in comments reported by ABC17NEWS.
That Sept. 28 discovery came 12 days after a gun was found inside a locked area of a student's vehicle at Rock Bridge High School on Sept. 16, according to the district, as reported by ABC17NEWS. The district said the Rock Bridge gun was not used in a threatening manner and that no threat of violence was made in that incident. Taken together, the Hickman backpack discovery marked the second gun found on district property in less than two weeks, the district said.
Detection Systems Already in Place at High Schools
Columbia Public Schools installed weapons-detection systems at its high schools in 2024, the district said in comments reported by ABC17NEWS. Metal detectors were implemented at Hickman, Rock Bridge and Battle high schools during the 2024-25 school year, according to a report from KOMU. Even with those systems in place, the district has logged multiple gun-related incidents on its property this fall.
Guns turning up around high school football games has not been confined to Columbia. In Illinois, a juvenile was arrested after officers found two apparently abandoned backpacks near the tennis court and baseball fields during a football game at Belleville East High School, with one bag containing a gun and ammunition, according to First Alert 4. Unlike the gun allegedly found with Ellis, the firearm recovered at the Belleville game was not loaded when police found it, the outlet reported.
What the Charge Against Ellis Involves
Under Section 571.030 of the Missouri Revised Statutes, a person can violate state law by carrying a firearm onto school premises, a school bus, or the site of a function sponsored or sanctioned by school officials or a district school board, according to the Missouri Revisor of Statutes. The excerpt of the statute reviewed does not spell out the full elements of the offense or the penalty that would apply in Ellis's case.
