High school basketball coaches charged with murder in death of basketball player who collapsed in practice

A grand jury has indicted two coaches with murder and child cruelty in connection with the death of a Georgia high school basketball player. Imani Bell, 16, suffered heatstroke while training outdoors in nearly 100 degrees in 2019, according to her family’s lawyer.

According to the Associated Press, the Georgia grand jury indicted coaches Larosa Walker-Asekere and Dwight Palmer last month in connection with Bell’s death. Family lawyer Justin Miller told the AP that Tuesday’s indictment “sends a signal that the prosecutor is taking this seriously.”

Walker-Asekere was the school’s head women’s basketball coach and Palmer was one of the Elite Scholars Academy assistants. The two were said to have been at the scene when Bell collapsed.

Bell was a junior at Elite Scholars Academy in Jonesboro, Ga., And was participating in mandatory conditioning drills on August 13, 2019 when she collapsed while walking up the steps of the school’s football stadium. She died soon after of heat-related cardiac arrest and kidney failure, according to a complaint filed in February by her family.

At the time of Bell’s death, there was a heat advisory in Clayton County, where the school is located. The lawsuit alleges that Elite Scholars Academy violated a Georgia High School Association rule that prohibits outdoor practices in such hot conditions.