VILLA RICA, Ga. (AP) — Shaquille O'Neal is offering to pay for the funeral of a 12-year-old Georgia girl who died a few days after she collapsed following a fight after school.
The former NBA superstar said he doesn't want the family of Jada Smith to deal with the financial burden of a funeral while grieving for the sixth grader, who died at a hospital March 8.
“As a father, my heart goes out to Jayda’s family," O'Neal said in a statement. “No parent should ever have to bury their child, 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.”
O'Neal's offer was announced in a joint news release by the sheriff of Douglas County, where the fight occurred, and the sheriff of Henry County, where O'Neal owns a home and holds a position as the sheriff's community relations chief. Both counties are in the Atlanta suburbs.
The girl's death is being investigated by police in Villa Rica, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of Atlanta. Police say Jada got into a fistfight with another girl near a neighborhood bus stop where they had been dropped off after school on March 5. She died at a hospital three days later.
Sgt. Spencer Crawford, a police spokesman, has said investigators were reviewing cellphone video of the fight posted to social media that shows Jada and another girl approach each other and begin throwing punches after the school bus leaves. The video shows the girls fall to the ground before an adult intervenes. It ends as Jada picks up her backpack and begins to walk away.
She never made it home. Sgt. Spencer Crawford, a police spokesman, has said emergency responders were dispatched on a report of “a young juvenile who was in cardiac arrest laying in the street.”
Results of an autopsy to determine the cause of death have not been released.
One of the girl's aunts, Lindsey McClendon Pettiford, said in a social media post that Jada's funeral is scheduled for Saturday.