Morant facing new gun, assault accusations
The worrying accusations surrounding Ja Morant are growing.
In separate incidents reported to police last summer, the Grizzlies star allegedly quarreled with a security guard in a mall parking lot and displayed a gun to a teen he had punched in the head during a dispute at his home.
The head of security at a Memphis mall told police Morant “threatened” him during a parking lot altercation during the summer, according to records obtained by the Washington
Post.
He also told officers a member of Morant’s group shoved him in the head.
No arrests were made in the altercation.
In a separate incident four days later, Morant was accused of punching a 17year-old boy in the head repeatedly during a pickup game at the 23-year-old’s house.
Morant and a friend hit the teen hard enough to send him to the ground and left him with a “large knot” on the side of his head, according to deputies who observed the injuries.
The boy told detectives Morant went into his house and reemerged with his hand on a gun visible in the waistband of his pants.
Morant told police the teen was the aggressor in the incident, throwing a ball at his head and stepping toward him, and that he had acted in self-defense.
“I swung first,” the NBA star told detective, adding “The ball was to me the first hit.”
Morant also told officers the teen — a top basketball prospect in the area — left his home shouting, “I’m gonna come back and light this place up like fireworks.”
Morant later filed a police report about the boy’s comment, saying his family had been threatened.
Shelby County prosectors declined to file charges due to a lack of evidence, a spokesperson told the Washington Post.
The teen, however, is suing Morant, according to a January TMZ report.
Neither incident was publicized at the time it occurred.