A high school track runner in Virginia is facing assault and battery charges after she was seen on video striking a competing runner with a baton during a relay race, leaving her with a concussion and a possible fractured skull.
Viral footage showed I.C. Norcom High School runner Alaila Everett strike Brookville High School junior Kaelen Tucker as she overtook Everett during a 4×200 meter relay race at Liberty University in Lynchburg last Tuesday.
Following the incident, judges disqualified Everett from the race.
A lipreader told the Daily Mail it looked like Everett could have uttered, “Get off,” and “hey oh,” as she hit Tucker.
Everett on Tuesday appeared on ABC’s “Good Morning America” where she denied she struck Tucker on purpose, claiming it was just an accident.
“Eventually after a couple times of hitting her, my baton got stuck behind her back like this, and it rolled up her back,” Everett said. “I lost my balance, when I pumped my arms again she got hit.”
“I would never do that on purpose,” Everett said in a Tuesday interview with “Good Morning America.” “That’s not in my character.”
Tucker, demanding an apology, also described the incident to WSLS earlier this week, saying, “When you go to the other side of the track, you have to cross into lane one, you have to merge in. As I was coming up on her, she kind of like made me get cut off a little bit, so I backed away…Then, as we got around the curve, she kept bumping me in my arm. Then finally we got off the curve, I like slowly started passing her and then that’s when she just hit me with the baton and I fell off the track.”
Doctors told her she’d suffered a concussion and possible skull fracture.
Portsmouth NAACP defended Everett ahead of charges being announced, writing, “Alaila is NOT AN ATTACKER and media headlines that allude towards that in any way is shameful. We understand the sensitivity of the circumstances for both athletes and their families involved but this narrative must not go unaddressed.”
The statement continued: “Alaila is an honor student and a star athlete at the historic I.C. Norcom High School. From all accounts, she is an exceptional young leader and scholar whose athletic talent has been well documented and recognized across our state. She has carried herself with integrity both on and off the field and any narrative that adjudicates her guilty of any criminal activity is a violation of her due process rights.”
Following an investigation, Lynchburg Commonwealth Attorney Bethany Harris charged Everett with misdemeanor assault and battery on Wednesday, Mar. 12.
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