A mother has filed a lawsuit against LaMelo Ball and the Charlotte Hornets alleging that the basketball player drove over her child’s foot and broke it after he asked the Hornets star for an autograph.
According to WSOC-TV, Tamaria McRae claims in her lawsuit that her then-11-year-old son, Angell Joseph, was outside of the Spectrum Center Arena in Charlotte at the team’s annual Purple and Teal Day on Oct. 7, 2023. When several fans, including her son, approached the point guard to ask for his autograph, he ignored their requests and as Ball drove away, his car rolled over Joseph’s foot.
She said she noticed Joseph going down, thinking he may have dropped something.
“I just seen my son kind of go down and I thought maybe he had dropped something,” McRae told WSOC.
Yet, she realized that he didn’t drop anything but when Ball drove away from the scene, he allegedly drove over her son’s foot, breaking it in the process.
The Los Angeles Times has reported that she filed the case in Mecklenburg County Superior Court in North Carolina on May 21. The lawsuit states that the injuries that Joseph suffered took months to heal while costing them more than $25,000. They accuse Ball of failing to “yield the right of way to a pedestrian” or to “apply his breaks in time to avoid an accident.”
In addition to suing Ball, the attorney for McRae is suing the team because they alleged that the Hornets did not provide adequate security and pedestrian control measures for the fans who gathered at the players’ parking lot.
McRae told WSOC-TV that after the accident, her son changed and it affected her.
“For a while, I couldn’t even recognize who my child was because, like depression, not being able to go outside and play,” she said. “When you see your children hurt, it hurts you. It’s been rough. It’s been real rough. I mean like I’m a strong person. This broke me. This right here, it really did.”RELATED CONTENT: LaMelo Ball’s 30-Point Triple-Double Sets Charlotte Hornets Record