Lawyer Claims St. Louis Football Players Targeted with Pepper Spray During Match

In Massillon, Ohio, a group of 23 high school football players from St. Louis is seeking justice with the help of renowned civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump. The players, who are from Cardinal Ritter College Prep, allege that local police unfairly pepper-sprayed them earlier this month.

The controversial incident took place on the night of Friday, October 3, following a football match between Cardinal Ritter College Prep and Massillon Washington High School. As the teams engaged in the customary post-game handshake, a disturbance led to several Cardinal Ritter players being pepper-sprayed, causing widespread confusion.

Benjamin Crump, who has gained national attention for his involvement in prominent civil rights cases including those of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, expressed strong condemnation of the incident. “The footage reveals an unjustifiable and excessive use of force. Deploying chemical agents on young teenagers aged 14 to 16 is indefensible,” Crump remarked.

In a statement released shortly after the game, the Massillon police department explained their actions. They claimed that intervention was necessary to separate players during the handshake, which resulted in the use of pepper spray by team staff, coaches, and officers.

They claim there were multiple physical altercations on the field between both teams and verbal commands were ignored.

During a news conference in St. Louis, parents of the players admitted there were words exchanged between both teams during the game, but no physical altercation.

“Looking at the Instagram video, it looks like there was an altercation, there was no altercation,” Shay Bolden, a parent, said. “It was no altercation when you look at the commentator’s video. Why was only our team sprayed when it was the other team on our sideline?”

Junior linebacker D.J. Boone, 17, and several teammates reported experiencing physical effects such as eye and respiratory issues after being pepper-sprayed.

Attorney Crump questioned why only Cardinal Ritter players were pepper-sprayed and not Massillon players, stressing they were racially profiled.

Cardinal Ritter College Prep is a co-ed Catholic high school in St. Louis.

With allegations of racial profiling and excessive force, the incident has sparked calls for an investigation and an apology from Massillon police. The players and their families continue to seek justice as they deal with the aftermath of the event.

affiliate WJW reached out to Massillon police to respond to allegations made during the news conference, but we have yet to receive a response.

All facts in this report were gathered by journalists employed by WJW. Artificial intelligence tools were used to reformat from a broadcast script into a news article for our website. This report was edited and fact-checked by WJW staff before being published.

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