An Oakland County felon has been charged in a federal criminal complaint with bringing a gun to a Pontiac high school last week, court documents said.

Cleve Nichols III, 34, was arrested Saturday by Oakland County Sheriff’s deputies, according to a complaint filed by Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit.

He faces a federal charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm. The charge carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison but offenders could be sentenced to a minimum of 15 years without parole if they have three or more prior felony convictions.

According to the complaint filed Tuesday, deputies were called to a Pontiac school for a report of a man with a firearm. The caller said the man was wearing camouflage pants and a black hooded sweatshirt.

Deputies were told while en route to the school that the suspect was threatening people at a basketball game in the school’s gym and had a pistol hanging out of his pocket, it said. Dispatchers told police the suspect was outside the gym and civilians had barricaded themselves inside.

Authorities arrived and saw a man matching the suspect’s description walk from the gym’s north side to a red Ford vehicle and get behind the wheel, documents said. Deputies approached the man and detained him. They identified him as Nichols, the filing said.

Deputies began to investigate. Witnesses told them they saw the suspect place a gun under a gray Ram pickup truck parked near the red Ford, the complaint said.

Police searched and found a 9mm handgun with a round in the chamber and 13 rounds in its magazine, according to the document.

A school employee told deputies Nichols was in the school with a gun in his pocket and that he was upset with one of the basketball coaches. Another witness told deputies Nichols shouted he would air him out and “air out this (expletive)” at the coach.

The employee said there were about 50 people, including 25-30 children, in the gym at the time.

According to the complaint, the employee blocked Nichols from entering the gym and when he refused to let him in, Nichols left the building.

On Monday, ATF agents interviewed Nichols at the Oakland County Jail, documents said.

He initially told agents he didn’t possess a firearm and requested an attorney, the filing said. They left the interview room.

Minutes later, he beckoned the agents to return and allegedly told them “I wouldn’t try and go up to the school and hurt nobody.” He also said he was a felon and not allowed to possess a firearm but admitted to having a gun in his pocket on Saturday. He also allegedly admitted to hiding the gun under the pickup truck in the school’s parking lot, the complaint said.

It said Nichols pleaded guilty to felony possession of under 25 grams of a controlled substance in 2012, was sentenced in 2013 to 1-8 years in prison after pleading no contest to assault with a dangerous weapon and pleaded no contest last year to domestic violence and/or knowingly assaulting a pregnant individual, 3rd offense notice.

According to the Michigan Department of Corrections, Nichols was discharged from prison in 2018 for the 2013 assault charge. It also said he was discharged in 2022 for the domestic violence charge.