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A Utah high school junior varsity basketball player was handcuffed and detained following a game earlier this month. Laval Stephens, 16, was watching the varsity game with his teammates when an administrator asked them to move. Laval told ABC 4, he asked the officer why he was forced to move he was doing nothing wrong.

“I was just asking, ‘Can you please give me a reason why I have to move? Is there anywhere in the rulebook that says I have to move?’ he told the news out.

Laval says he agreed to leave the area and walked with his coach back to his school’s Ben Lomond’s side of the gym. Laval said while walking with his coach, a deputy with the Utah County Sheriff’s Department walked up to him, and that’s when things escalated and took a turn for the worst.

“When he told me to leave he said, ‘You have five minutes to get outside or you’re trespassing.’ So I went outside. I wasn’t being aggressive. I didn’t even touch him.”

“He starts pushing me in the back and then said ‘You’re walking too slow.’ He grabbed me in the back and started pushing me out the door,” Laval recalled.

“I felt like it was unnecessary because I didn’t do anything. He didn’t even take my backpack off. He just put my hands behind my back. My backpack was weighing down on my hands. It was hurting so bad and the rocks were freezing cold.”

The student-athlete, who says he was not the only Ben Lomond player on the opposing team’s side, believes he was targeted because of his skin color but says it was important for him to stay calm during the ordeal.

“I didn’t want to get shot. I see young black men get shot every day. I didn’t want to be a hashtag.”

“It just broke my heart. It broke my heart,” LaTanya Stephens, Laval’s mother told ABC 4. “He’s never been in trouble. I just felt like they went so overboard.”

LaTanya and her husband Vincent believe the officer could have better handled the situation.

“He immediately targeted my son, threw him on the ground, treated him like an animal, and radioed for backup like he was a criminal,” Vincent Stephens said.

“He [police officer] didn’t diffuse it. He came in there like he was holding the school hostage. I’m very upset and I’m getting down to the bottom of it,’ LaTanya added.

Jon Rentmeister, another parent who was at the game and witnessed the incident told ABC4 News that he noticed, “Laval was in trouble” and walked outside to record.

“I saw the officer get behind him and start doing the push thing – push, push,” Jon explained, while doing a push motion with his hand. “That’s what kind of bothered me.”

When asked what made him record the video Jon said, “I thought the way it was being handled wasn’t right. Had it had been my kids I would have hoped someone would have done the same thing.”

Jon’s wife, Melissa added, “The officer and the administrative person decided to insert themselves and escalate the situation that didn’t need to be. He was already going back with his coach. There was no problem,” she said.

Laval was not arrested but was shaken up from what took place. “I kind of feel humiliated. I just feel embarrassed at this point.”

In an email, Utah County Sheriff’s confirmed to ABC4 News that it is investigating the matter. Jer Bates, Communications Director with Ogden School District, emailed the following statement to the news station.

“We are aware of the situation. Because the incident involves a student I cannot comment on any specifics. I am only able to say that administrators from both schools along with the Utah County Sheriff’s Office are working together to investigate this incident.”

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