VA Track Runner Charged With Assault After Hitting Opponent

A Virginia high school track runner is faced with an assault charge after a viral video showed the runner striking her competitor with a baton. 

The online video shows the two high schoolers Alaila Everette and Kaelen Tucker running a 4x200 meter relay state finals race on March 4th. The two were neck and neck in the race, and as they came around the corner Tucker was hit by Everett's baton and stumbled off the field in pain, per NBC news. Everett continued on with the race. 

“I was surprised when I saw the video. However, I had seen a similar situation that occurred at a high school track meet in Jamaica, “ said Nielle Ambrition, a first-year account major and track athlete. 

A week later,  Lynchburg Commonwealth’s Attorney Bethany Harrison announced that an assault and battery charge was filed against Everette. The case is being handled in the Lynchburg Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court. 

“I feel like the runner being charged was the right decision due to the damage of the injury upon the other runner”, said Morgan Pruit, a second-year kinesiology major and track athlete. 

Tucker said that she initially backed off of Everett as the girls were crossing the track because Everett cut her off as they tried to merge into lane one. She claimed that they were bumping arms as they rounded the corner. Evette said that the girls were so close together that her baton kept hitting Tucker. 

“Then finally we got off the curve, I, like slowly started passing her and that’s when she just hit me with the baton and I fell off the track,” said Tucker, a junior at Brookville High School, per NBC News. 

Tucker was later diagnosed with a concussion and a possible skull fracture from the assault.

“Eventually, after a couple of times, my baton got stuck behind her back like this, and it rolled up her back,” said Everett, a senior at I.C Norcom High School. “I lost my balance. When I pumped my arms again she got hit,” per NBC News. 

Everett said she tried to check on Tucker after she passed her baton to her teammate, but Tucker was surrounded by people at this time. Just a few days ago at I.C Norcom High School, Everett held a rally for support in response to the charges. 

“I would never do anything like that. I would never harm anybody. I’m not a fighter,” Everett told rally attendees.