Superstar basketball player LeBron James is getting accused of inciting violence after releasing a haunting tweet towards the Ohio-based police officer that shot and killed 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant yesterday.
The Los Angeles Lakers star player is now facing immense backlash over the incident with reports mentioning how he was forced to delete his own controversial Tweet as matters quickly escalated.
Critics condemned the player’s use of words in the social media post, claiming that many stars including LeBron James were downplaying the fact that the 16-year-old teen shot in Columbus, Ohio was armed with a knife.
Yesterday, bodycam footage of the incident went viral, clearly depicting how Bryant was killed by an Ohio state police officer who shot at her four times. However, the video also revealed how the teen was shot as she attempted to attack another young woman using her knife.
After receiving the bullets, the young teen fell to the ground, with the knife she was carrying dropping to her side too.
Meanwhile, many people including LeBron James felt that the killing was not justified. This is just moments after the verdict of Derek Chauvin was released, where the former cop from Minneapolis was termed guilty for murdering George Floyd.
The iconic NBA superstar took this time to write out a Tweet for the killing where he mentioned in bold terms, “YOU’RE NEXT”. This came with the hashtag of accountability and a hourless emoji alongside the image of one of the Ohio-based police officers that were present at the shooting scene.
Therefore, critics were quick to accuse LeBron James of leveraging his giant Twitter-based fan following to go and target the officer in question.
“LeBron James is actually trying to incite violence against an Ohio-based cop. And this behavior is absolutely disgraceful and dangerous too. Is the NBA ok with all of this? Is Twitter okay with it too?” mentioned Senator Tom Cotton.
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