In an Ohio courtroom on Tuesday, a judge dismissed murder charges against Tevin Biles-Thomas, prompting a victim’s mother to lunge at him.
26-year-old Biles-Thomas, the brother of Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, faced charges of murder, voluntary manslaughter, and felonious assault in connection with the death of three in Ohio on New Year’s Eve, 2018. When it was announced that all charges against him had been dismissed, citing lack of evidence and witness descriptions of the shooter, the mother of one of the victims attempted to attack Biles-Thomas, resulting in a brush with the court’s security.
“You have to be fucking kidding me,” says the mother of shooting victim DelVaunte Johnson, NBC News reported. “I’m going to kill you.” Biles-Thomas was accused of fatally shooting 19-year-old DelVaunte Johnson, 21-year-old Toshaun Banks, and 23-year-old DeVaughn Gibson, who is his cousin.
“We get it, she’s angry,” Biles-Thomas’ attorney Joseph Patituce said following the confrontation, TMZ reports. “She was led to believe Mr. Biles was guilty, when he wasn’t, and she reacted like a mother. We don’t fault her for that. … She lost a son and we understand, and we respect the fact that she has suffered horribly, her family has suffered horribly, just like the other families—including Mr. Biles.”
An indictment against Biles-Thomas said he “had a firearm on or about his person or under his control while committing the offense and displayed the firearm, brandished the firearm, indicated that he possessed the firearm.” Evidence for the charges against him were deemed “insufficient,” per Judge Joan Synenberg of Cuyahoga County, Ohio.
Simone Biles previously addressed the charges against her older brother in a statement shared in September 2019. “My heart aches for everyone involved, especially for the victims and their families,” she wrote. “There is nothing that I can say that will heal anyone’s pain, but I do want to express my sincere condolences to everyone affected by this terrible tragedy.”
