The victim, who plays for Tumakbo, caught the basketball from a teammate but is heavily guarded against his opponent.
He falls to the ground and loses possession, prompting both players to wrestle and pull each other for a chance to regain the ball.
But as the two players scuffle on the ground, a second Payton’s Place player runs over and forcefully stomps the opposing player’s head onto the hardwood.
The stomping ignited an immediate response from the referee, who blew his whistle and carried the brute off the court as other players and coaches swarmed him.
“He was down on the floor, and this kid just came and just stomped on him and on his head,” the victim’s mother, Eva Guingab, told ABC 7.
“You could clearly see the size of his shoe on his face. My son suffered a concussion for the first time he played basketball.”
A photo taken after the game shows the side of her son’s head beat red with an apparent shoe mark running from his neck up to the top of his head.
The mother said her son is in concussion protocol and has been dealing with headaches.
“I think everyone was just in shock,” Tumakbo United coach Michael Tolentino told the outlet.
“I think we all kind of went on the court and went to the coach of the other team to say, ‘What just happened? What’s going on?’”
However, the family of the Payton’s Place player who committed the stomping said the boy was standing up for his teammate who he believed was kicked and punched in the scuffle.
The family also revealed that since the video has gone viral online, the boy is being cyberbullied by adults.
The unidentified Payton’s Place player was ejected from the gym following the assault.
“There is footage circulating of one of our team’s games this past weekend. Unfortunately, the footage is not a positive representation of our team and our values,” Peyton’s Place said on Instagram.
“The behavior that was exhibited by our player is not acceptable, and is being taken seriously. We do not condone violence. Our players are expected to conduct themselves with integrity on and off the court. At this time, both teams are working together to resolve this matter.”
Race was not a factor in the incident, coaches for both teams told the local outlet.
The Guingabs have since filed a report with the Alameda Police Department, and an investigation into the stomping is underway, according to the outlet.
The Alameda County District Attorney will decide whether to press charges or not after the police investigation.
“If we don’t say anything right now, this kid will think it’s OK to do it because he’s young,” Guingab shared. “He thinks that walking away from this situation is OK, and it’s not OK.”What do you think? Post a comment.
On Tuesday, Peyton’s Place said it removed the player from its roster and that his behavior was “unexpected.”
“The player involved is no longer playing for the Payton’s Place team,” the team said. “His behavior was unexpected. We are working to assist in providing him resources to prevent this in the future. Violence has never been a part of our team. On behalf of the Payton’s Place Family, we sincerely apologize to the player injured in this incident, his family, and all those.
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