Shaquille O’Neal is offering to pay for the funeral of a 12-year-old girl who died after fighting with another student as they stepped off a school bus in Georgia.
Jada West succumbed to a brain injury hours after she was involved in a street brawl in Villa Rica, just outside of Atlanta, earlier this month.
Following her tragic passing, former NBA superstar O’Neal said he doesn’t want West’s family to deal with the financial burden of a funeral while grieving for the sixth grader, who died at a hospital on March 8.
‘As a father, my heart goes out to Jada’s family. No parent should ever have to bury their child, and if there is anything I can do to ease even a small part of that burden, then it is the right thing to do,’ he said in a statement.
‘Our community must surround this family with love, support, and compassion during such a painful moment.’
O’Neal’s offer was announced in a joint news release by the sheriff of Douglas County, where the fight occurred, and the sheriff of Henry County, where he owns a home and holds a position as the sheriff’s community relations chief. Both counties are in the Atlanta suburbs.
Shaquille O’Neal is paying for the funeral of a 12-year-old girl who died after fighting with another student at a bus stop in Georgia
Jada West died from a brain injury hours after she was involved in the brawl earlier this month
The girl’s death is being investigated by police in Villa Rica, about 30 miles west of Atlanta. Police say Jada got into a fistfight with another girl near a neighborhood bus stop where they had been dropped off after school on March 5.
Sergeant Spencer Crawford, a police spokesman, has said investigators were reviewing cellphone footage of the fight circulating on social media that shows Jada and another girl approach each other and begin throwing punches after the school bus leaves.
The video shows the girls, who police confirmed to the Daily Mail were both Mason Creek Middle School students, fall to the ground before an adult intervenes. It ends as Jada picks up her backpack and begins to walk away.
She never made it home. Crawford has said emergency responders were dispatched on a report of ‘a young juvenile who was in cardiac arrest laying in the street.’
Results of an autopsy to determine the cause of death have not been released.
One of Jada’s aunts, De’Quala McClendon, wrote on Facebook before her death that the girls didn’t know each other.
‘It may seem like a normal fight, but before my niece could make it home, her heart stopped and now she’s laying in the hospital possibly brain dead with the outcome that she may not make it,’ McClendon said.
Distressing footage of the fight, which happened after the two girls stepped off a school bus, surfaced on social media
West’s aunt, De’Quala McClendon, said her niece did not know the other girl in the footage
NBA icon O’Neal has offered to cover funeral costs in order to support West’s grieving family
According to McClendon, the argument began at school and continued on the school bus.
‘They failed my sister’s child because we are broken by this,’ she wrote.
‘Someone who has never been in trouble or a fight but stood her ground against a bully… she is only 12 she’s a good kid.
‘She needs all of us to stand for her. We need answers… We want justice.’
Another of Jada’s aunts, Lindsey McClendon Pettiford, said in a social media post that her funeral is scheduled for Saturday.
