Father strikes teen with car after basketball court dispute: cops

CROWN POINT — A basketball court fight between teenagers led to one of the youth’s fathers striking two teenagers with his vehicle, police said.

Ronald Whitt, 38, of Lynwood was charged with battery resulting in serious bodily injury, battery by means of a deadly weapon and criminal recklessness.

Whitt drove his black Kia Carnival into two teens Monday evening in a parking lot next to the Hammond YMCA, according to a probable cause affidavit.

The man and teen had been playing basketball with his children when an argument started that turned physical, the affidavit said.

The two groups left the the YMCA to carry the fight outside to a nearby church parking lot, the affidavit said.

One group walked to their car and dropped their bags in the vehicle, the affidavit said, while Whitt’s sons ran to the black Kia, got in the car and told the driver that another group of boys had hit them.

Whitt, in the driver’s seat, said, “Oh no, don’t let them do that,” according to a witness, the affidavit said.

After the other group dropped off their bags, they walked toward the church parking lot, the affidavit said, and Whitt drove out of the YMCA lot, made a U-turn into the church lot and accelerated his vehicle toward two of them.

Whitt struck one of them with the left front side of his car before he turned right toward the other and struck him, the affidavit said.

The second teen fell onto the hood of Whitt’s car and then rolled over onto the pavement, according to the affidavit.

One teen said he lost consciousness after he was hit and experienced neck and back pain as a result, according to the affidavit, and the other had abrasions on his arms and head pain.

Police gathered video surveillance footage from the church which corroborated witness accounts of the incident, according to the affidavit.

Whitt told police he did not intend to hit the boys and instead said they were “running off” and he was trying to drive in front of them to stop them from getting into their car, the affidavit said.

Whitt said he approached them because his children said the other teens were going to the car to get a firearm, the affidavit said.

“I didn’t do it on purpose,” he said, according to the affidavit.

Whitt’s bail was set at $60,000 surety, $6,000 cash.