his face. I pulled his shirt. ‘Show Mommy where Chase hurts.’”

Chase put a hand on his back and simply said, "Back," according to the report.

A witness, identified as Collin Thompson, told police that she saw Chase running in the middle of the road. She said that an older white man got out of the car and approached Chase and pushed him to the ground, yelling, "Get out of here," the Post reports.


Another witness, Kris Van Metter, told Syracuse.com that he had just finished his bicycle ride when he saw the same thing.

“I see a grown man, who is quite tall and fairly heavy … exit the vehicle and give this young man a shove that puts him back 10 feet and flat on his butt,” Van Metter toldcoach, who encouraged him to change his mind, but Chase refused.

Coleman told the Post about the joy that her son had found in running after several attempts at other sports like soccer, baseball and basketball. Chase, she said, had developed his own little family with his team, with all of them, boys and girls, showing up to his "bro mitzvah" when he turned 13.


“[MacDonald] snatched a joy out of my child that took a long time to establish,” Coleman said. “He needs to face the music. … This is still a child and it was unprovoked. He needs to wear some handcuffs and go through that whole process.”

Read more at the Washington Post and Syracuse.com.