A Texas couple has been arrested after a youth softball game in a Houston suburb turned violent, according to law enforcement.
Kiarious Hall, 36, is accused of two counts of assault causing bodily injury. His wife, Jazmine Hall, 36, faces one count of assault causing bodily injury, according to Fort Bend County court records.
The incident happened on the night of Saturday, Oct. 24, at about 7:30 p.m. at Imperial Park on East U.S. Route 90 in Sugar Land, a large suburban city roughly 20 miles southwest of Houston.
Police arrived around 7:40 p.m. and spoke with the defendants about what had happened, according to charging documents obtained by Houston-based Fox.
The husband told officers that he and his wife were at the girls’ game to cheer for their daughter. He said they were approached by a man who was upset about the cheering. Kiarious Hall said the man told him he “couldn’t cheer before the players pitched the ball,” but he kept cheering, according to law enforcement.
The argument continued and escalated when a second man came over to complain. Kiarious Hall said one of the men elbowed him in the chest. He also said the fight did not begin until the second man grabbed him and poked him in the chest, police said.
Kiarious Hall allegedly admitted punching the second man in the face, causing him to fall and hit his head. He said the impact left the man unconscious, according to police. A physical fight with the first man followed, but the two eventually separated, police said.
To check the husband’s account, officers spoke with witnesses who showed them video of the incident. Because of the camera angle, it was unclear whether either man attacked Kiarious Hall first.
However, police said the footage clearly shows Kiarious Hall swinging a metal water bottle and hitting one man in the face, the man who fell and was knocked unconscious. The defendant is then allegedly seen swinging the bottle again, striking the other man and fighting with him. The video also allegedly shows Jazmine Hall joining the fight and pushing the first man, according to law enforcement.
The first man later spoke to local ABC.
“We’re saying ‘Hey, why are you getting loud?’ It’s bad sportsmanship to do it right as the pitch comes up when our girls are batting, and that’s all it took,” he told the TV station. “He just flipped and said, I can do whatever I want, I can say whatever I want. And you can’t stop me.”
He also described the violence, telling KTRK, “I said ‘You can’t do this.’ I took him, I wanted to disarm the guy, because he’s going to do it to somebody else.”
The man allegedly hit with the water bottle suffered a broken jaw, a fractured skull and brain bleeds, according to his attorney. The man allegedly tackled into the bushes by Jazmine Hall suffered chin injuries that needed seven stitches, extensive scrapes and a broken hip, he told the station.
“It’s medieval times like we’re going to smash each other in the head with something,” the first man said. The Sugar Land Police Department arrested the couple, who were booked into the Fort Bend County Jail. They later made bond and were released.
Earlier this week, Jazmine Hall resigned from her position as an assistant principal at Lamar Junior High School in nearby Rosenberg.