Raptors’ president encounter with deputy being investigated

Prosecutors will decide whether to charge Toronto Raptors President Masai Ujiri with misdemeanor battery after he was accused of shoving and hitting a sheriff’s deputy in the face while trying to join his team on the court to celebrate their first NBA championship.

Alameda County sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Ray Kelly said Friday that investigators are reviewing footage from body cameras worn by the deputy and other officers, the stadium’s surveillance video and cellphone video. He said a report will be forwarded prosecutors.

After the game Thursday night in Oakland against the Golden State Warriors, Ujiri tried to walk past the deputy who was checking court-access credentials, Kelly said. When the deputy stopped him, Ujiri shoved him back several feet and yelled obscenities, Kelly said.

“That’s when our deputy goes hands-on and moves Mr. Ujiri back from the court. Mr. Ujiri made a second, more significant shove and during that shove his arm struck our deputy in the side of the head,” Kelly said.

The deputy complained of pain in his jaw and was taken to a hospital for evaluation and later released.

A video of the altercation obtained by NBC Bay Area shows Ujiri and a deputy being held back courtside by several bystanders. It doesn’t show the scuffle. The video appeared to show Ujiri holding some type of credential in his right hand while standing by the court.

Greg Wiener, a 61-yearold Warriors’ season ticket holder, said Friday he was standing next to the deputy during the encounter and didn’t see Ujiri strike him in the face.

Wiener said the encounter began when the deputy put his hand on Ujiri’s chest and pushed him. Ujiri shoved him back before bystanders intervened, Wiener said.

“The thing about the cops saying the policeman asked for his credentials, that didn’t happen. There was no conversation at all,” Wiener said. “This part about striking him in the face, yeah that didn’t happen.”

Wiener said he hadn’t been interviewed by authorities.

“This looks like somebody trying to embellish what happened to protect what they did, what the policeman did,” Wiener said.

Kelly said deputies took witness statements and were reviewing footage frombody camerasworn by the deputy along with footage from the arena surveillance system and cellphones.

“We had the opportunity to make an arrest and we chose not to,” Kelly said. “We decided it would be in everyone’s best interest to slow things down and do an investigation.”