A Wisconsin man was booked on disorderly conduct charges last week after allegedly assaulting a 16-year-old girl and pelting her with racist insults at a high school basketball game in Milwaukee.
A March 5 matchup between Milwaukee School of Languages and Pius High School had just ended when cheerleader Jameila Williams says an older white man shoved her into a door frame and called her the N-word.
Her mother, Kehana Williams, was at the game and said she went looking for her kids when she noticed a large group of students rush back into the gym.
“I run into Jameila and she’s like, mom, that man; she was hyperventilating, her face is extremely red, her hair is all over the place,” she recalled to local station WDJT. The mother goes on to describe what her daughter told her about the alleged encounter. “[He] called her the B-word, a loser, the N-word, and he just kept repeatedly calling her the N-word.”
Jameila Williams said the attack seemed to come out of nowhere. Her older brother, Malik, and several other School of Languages students came to her defense.
Yolanda Brazil, a security professional and family member of a Pius XI girls basketball player, said there was a lot of “punching, yelling and hollering. It wasn’t enough event staff there. It wasn’t enough,” Brazil added. “We were just trying to control the crowd, making sure people were safe.”
Witness video shows students rushing to tackle the man, who Jameila Williams believes is a Pius fan. Her brother said he remembered his sister crying and pointing out her attacker, “screaming ‘Why would you do that to me?’ “
Brown Deer police responded to “a large altercation” outside the school just after 8:30 p.m, a police report shows. There were several arguments going on in the parking lot, but multiple parties quickly identified a 55-year-old man of Greenfield — a suburb of Milwaukee — as the one who’d attacked Williams.
“The male was arrested for Disorderly Conduct, conveyed to the station, booked, cited and released,” police said in a statement. “A report was filed.”
Milwaukee Public Schools released a statement on the incident, saying the district “doesn’t condone the use of racial slurs or derogatory language. We encourage our student athletes and families to show good sportsmanship.”
The city’s Pius High School, which says it’s cooperating with police, also issued a statement.
“We remain wholly committed to our Pius XI family, to positive sportsmanship, to living our Catholic values and to the safety and security of our students and families.”
Williams’ family is grateful police stepped in, but say charges against the man don’t go far enough.
“That was assault, not disorderly conduct,” the teen’s mother argued.
“I don’t think that’s fair to her — my sister, ” Malik Williams chimed in. “Because he shouldn’t have put his hands on a 16 year old.”
Authorities haven’t named the man in question, citing the ongoing investigation.
Watch more in the video below.
