A youth basketball referee is asking for charges after he was shoved, pulled, and wrestled to the floor by a parent following a tournament game in Tiverton, R.I. Video of the Saturday scuffle appears to show players and bystanders joining in. Police are investigating.
What we know, per WJAR:
- The incident happened Saturday, Oct. 24, at the Longplex in Tiverton during a Zero Gravity Basketball tournament featuring dozens of teams from around the region.
- Referee Kevin Crapps said it started during a game when a player argued with him and called him names. He said parents and spectators got involved as tensions rose.
- After the game, Crapps said a parent approached him, pushed him, and pulled him close. He said he wrapped his arms around the man, the two spun, and they went to the ground.
- Crapps said someone underneath him told him not to move and that he was being protected from people trying to hit him in the head. At least one bystander can be seen on video trying to break up the scuffle.
- Crapps suffered a cut above one eye and said he was otherwise relatively uninjured.
- Tiverton police are investigating, along with a separate, unrelated incident at the Longplex on Sunday. Anyone with information can contact Detective Jack Barter at (401) 625-6717 or jbarter@tivertonpoliceri.com.
Crapps said he wants charges filed against those involved and wants to thank the bystander who stepped in. Without that help, he said, the outcome could have been worse. He also asked who would be held accountable had he been seriously hurt.
The bigger picture
Chris Iannucci, president of Board 84, a major association for basketball referees in Rhode Island, called the incident disheartening. Earlier this year he backed a bill that would have made any assault on a sports official a felony rather than a misdemeanor. That proposal stalled at the Statehouse, and Iannucci told WJAR he isn't optimistic about its chances if it comes back.
WJAR also noted that a basketball referee was injured in Providence last year after reportedly being attacked by a man with a knife.
Longplex management declined to speak on camera but showed NBC 10 the facility's posted policy on unsportsmanlike conduct. Zero Gravity Basketball had not responded to NBC 10's request for comment at the time of the report.
Crapps said the violence is happening too often and has to stop before someone gets hurt worse.
Source: WJAR