A girl’s youth basketball coach in Connecticut used his car to run down the parent of a player from a rival team after they had a heated argument over their weekend game, as seen in video shared by police.
The confrontation unfolded around 11 a.m. Saturday in the parking lot of Horace W. Porter School in Columbia, according a press release from Connecticut State Police. The victim told responding officers that they’d attended a Parks & Recreation basketball game at the school that morning and became “involved in a verbal altercation with the visiting team’s coach,” who was identified on Monday as 29-year-old Bryan Baez-Rivera.
After the matchup, the parent “attempted to approach the coach’s vehicle in the parking lot,” at which point Baez-Rivera “intentionally ran into them” with his car, police said. Surveillance video from the lot shows the moment of impact and the victim rolling over the vehicle’s hood and roof before falling to the ground.
Witnesses told WSAZ the victim suffered a broken nose, a concussion and other minor injuries. State police also confirmed the parent was left with “visible” but “non-life-threatening injuries” and was transported to an area hospital for treatment.
Baez-Rivera denied striking the victim on purpose. He told police they followed him into the parking lot and then walked into his “path of travel.” The basketball coach said he did not have enough time to swerve out of the way before striking the rival parent, prompting others in the lot to start chasing after his vehicle.
“Surveillance showed that the victim did in fact approach Baez-Rivera’s path of travel, however Baez-Rivera appeared to make no attempt to avoid striking the victim,” police said.
Baez-Rivera then left the lot, a decision he made for “his own safety as well as his passengers, which included minor children,” according to the press release. He was arrested a short time later and charged with second-degree assault, second-degree reckless endangerment, second-degree breach of peace and two counts of risk of injury to a minor.
The coach has since bonded out and is due back in court on Jan. 23.
Mark Walter, town administrator of Columbia, condemned the incident while emphasizing that the children are their top concern.
“This [is] not something we encourage or expect,” he told NBC Connecticut. “We want our children to have fun, feel safe and enjoy sports.”