Police in Florida were called to a park by officials from a children’s soccer league after they got into a dispute with a family over its child’s playing time.
The dispute occurred at Martin Luther King Jr. Park in Winter Park, near Orlando, on Saturday.
An official from the i9 Sports League told police that the parents were being disruptive after being told that their child would no longer be allowed to play due to behavior, according to an event report from police.
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“The kid is good. He’s great. Really good. He’s very advanced compared to the other ones, so he’s scoring a lot of goals,” the official told police, as caught on body camera footage released Monday. “But he’s pushing the kids. … So, I try to tell him, don’t push; we want to play without pushing, right?”
The parents of the child, identified as Nevada Pierre, 3, by NBC News, say he was removed from the game solely because of his abilities.
Martasia Griffin, his mother, told ABC News that her son was benched for being “too good” and that he has scored over 40 goals across five games this season played against 5-year-olds.
The police told the parties that the dispute was a civil matter that they had no jurisdiction to intervene in and that the league officials promised the parents that they would be refunded the cost to play.
“The family was cooperative with the officers. … The incident was a civil matter between those parties and not criminal. No one was arrested, trespassed, or forced to leave the park,” Winter Park police said Monday.
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