Evan, an Asian American teen, was recorded being assaulted on video during an Amateur Athletic Union tournament game, and his parents want to see something done about it.
KPIX CBS SF Bay Area reports that the incident, all caught on video, shows Evan getting punched in the head by a player from the other team. The AAU game was between the South Bay Snipers and the San Francisco Generals, and took place in Oakland, California on Saturday (May 1). Two players got into some sort of altercation with Evan, who is pushed to the ground by them. After the ball is passed, the player once again pushes Evan. When he’s back on his feet, he walks away before turning away after some words were exchanged.
He turns around in the clip, and is then punched in the face. His parents, Lennie and Eduardo, said that no one in the audience, including the other parents, “stood up to go protect my son.” Lennie said that some of the opposing team’s players had used “the ‘C’ word.” Eduardo added, “Two-thirds of the team are Asian.” Witness Olivia, who like Evan and his family didn’t use their last name for safety reasons, said her son heard the team use the slur.
According to witnesses and Evan’s parents, none of the staff came in to stop the altercation either. In fact, they claim the director of the AAU tournament refused to watch the video. “Several of the boys said they were using a lot of profanity using the ‘B’ word using the ‘C’ word,” said Olivia. “How was a technical foul not called when he was obviously punching him in the face? They said, ‘Oh, we saw what happened,’ and I was pressing them because I said, ‘If you saw what happened, you should not let that go!’”
Evan was left with a concussion following the assault, and so far no one involved has apologized to the family. The player who punched Evan was banned for the game the following day, but the player who pushed him to the floor first was not. Lennie and Eduardo plan to file a police report on the incident.
