Shaquille O’Neal said he will pay for the funeral of Jada West, a 12-year-old Georgia girl who died a few days after collapsing following a fight after school. In a statement, O’Neal said he did not want the family to carry the financial burden of arranging a funeral while grieving.
“No parent should ever have to bury their child, O’Neal said in a statement, “and if there is anything I can do to ease even a small part of that burden, then it is the right thing to do.” The offer was announced in a joint news release involving the sheriffs of Douglas County and Henry County, according to the report. Douglas County is where the fight occurred, and Henry County is where O’Neal owns a home and holds a position as the sheriff’s community relations chief.
Police in Villa Rica are investigating Jada’s death, about 30 miles west of Atlanta. Authorities said Jada got into a fistfight with another girl near a neighborhood bus stop where students had been dropped off after school on March 5, and she died at a hospital three days later.
Sgt. Spencer Crawford, a police spokesman, said investigators were reviewing cellphone video of the fight that was posted to social media. Crawford said the video shows Jada and another girl approach each other and begin throwing punches after the school bus leaves, and that the footage ends as Jada picks up her backpack and begins to walk away, after the girls fall to the ground and an adult intervenes.
Crawford also said emergency responders were dispatched on a report describing “a young juvenile who was in cardiac arrest laying in the street.” The autopsy results to determine the cause of death have not been released, police said.
In a social media post, one of Jada’s aunts, Lindsey McClendon Pettiford, said Jada’s funeral is scheduled for Saturday.