LeVelle Moton says he and Raymond Felton had terrifying incident with police in 2005
North Carolina Central men’s basketball coach LeVelle Moton says former UNC and NBA star Raymond Felton was with him in the car in 2005 when the pair had a terrifying encounter with police.
Moton says he didn’t go public about the incident at the time because he didn’t want to hurt Felton’s draft stock, but video of George Floyd’s death this week has left the coach shaken and he felt compelled to finally speak.
The aftershocks of Floyd’s death are being felt across the country. Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died Monday in Minneapolis after being arrested. A video of the arrest shows a police officer with his knee on Floyd’s neck. Floyd was saying that he couldn’t breathe, and the officer did not appear to let up.
The officer and three others have been fired and the outrage has left wreckage in Minneapolis as protesters have taken to the streets searching for justice.
In North Carolina, the video sparked emotions that reminded Moton of the dangerous incident. Moton told a story via Twitter on Thursday about an encounter he was fortunate enough to walk away from after a mistaken identity situation in 2005.
“This George Floyd issue has triggered my anxiety disorder,” Moton posted Thursday afternoon.
He described an incident in May of 2005 when he was riding with Felton, a close friend. In the tweet, Moton, who is black, recalls seeing a Raleigh Police Department car following him. He was on the phone with his mother and remembers her telling him to stay calm. Moments later, the sirens went off and after pulling over, Moton says the officer and his partner rushed his vehicle, swinging the doors open.
As he recounts the story, Moton says he was snatched out of the truck and forced to “spread eagle” on the vehicle. He recalls the officer calling for backup without asking for his driver’s license or registration. Felton was never asked to step out of the vehicle.
In a series of following tweets, Moton describes being forced to sit on the curb and the officers asking to search the vehicle. When he tells them he won’t allow a search, Moton wrote that one of the officers responded “It’s because you got dope in the car huh?”
“Soon after, his backup arrives and literally pulls up on the curb 4 (feet) away from me with his gun drawn,” Moton wrote. “He asked for my license and I told him ‘I’m not reaching in this truck for you to shoot me.’ ”
One of the officers who responded to the scene recognized Moton and Felton and told the first officer on the scene they weren’t the suspects they were looking for. Moton said the initial officer offered an apology, saying he “fit the description of a call we received.”
“He extended his hand but I refused to shake it,” Moton tweeted. “I sat on that curb for 30 minutes humiliated. It’s the first time in my life I felt less than a man.”
.JPG "IMG_IMG_2423.jpg_4_1_41HP2TQL_L543625344 (1).JPG")
Moton, who was a player at N.C. Central from 1992-96, was the head coach at Sanderson High School at the time. He said he never spoke about the event publicly before now because Felton was set to enter the NBA Draft and he didn’t want the news to affect the guard in a negative way. Felton, a star on UNC’s 2005 national championship team, was selected by the Charlotte Bobcats with the No. 5 overall pick that year. He played 15 seasons in the NBA with seven teams, including the Bobcats, New York Knicks and Los Angeles Clippers, averaging 11.2 points and 5.2 assists in his career.
Moton said he has hosted a lot of events in the area since the 2005 incident, with assistance from the Raleigh Police Department, showing the two sides have since had a professional relationship. A representative from the RPD was not available for comment on Saturday.
“You get to a point where enough is just enough for me,” Moton told the N&O in a phone interview. “I held that (story) in for years.”
Officers in Minnesota responded to an alleged forgery in progress. They were told that a person who fit the description of the suspect was sitting near a car and looked to be under the influence. Unlike Floyd, Moton got to go home after his encounter.
“My mom was crying,” Moton wrote. “I was emotionally paralyzed but was thankful just to be alive. When I see brothers like George Floyd and countless others, I’m triggered. My stomach turns and my heart becomes heavy for their loved ones.”
The video of the officer with his knee on Floyd’s neck went viral earlier this week and has sparked all kinds of emotional reaction from celebrities, entertainers and professional athletes.
Floyd was close friends with former NBA player Stephen Jackson, both from the Houston area. Moton and Jackson were in Felton’s wedding together. Moton never met Floyd, but knowing Jackson made it hit closer to home for the father of two.
“We’re all cut from the same cloth,” Moton said over the phone.
Moton’s upbringing in tough neighborhoods has been well documented, first in Boston, then in Southeast Raleigh. In December the park he grew up playing basketball in was named in his honor. As a young boy, Moton’s mom didn’t want him anywhere near that park.
“It was so much violence happening every day she feared me being hurt,” Moton told the N&O in December. “She never wanted me to go up there.”
As a child, Moton recalls spending every day at the park playing basketball and avoiding pitfalls that could have sent his life in a different direction.
“When I was growing up, it was where they were selling crack on the block,” Moton said. “Ten yards away you had the dope boys selling crack and inside the gate you had a basketball game going on, that’s just what it was. That made it extremely dangerous. That was my mom’s biggest fear.”
CALLING OUT OTHER COACHES
Social media is filled with challenges. Coaches dance in TikTok videos just to appear hip to recruits. Years ago, they poured water on each other to support ALS. Moton has seen them all, participated in them all. But now he has a challenge for his fellow coaches, one that means more to him.
“I challenge NCAA Coaches to publicly support George Floyd and his family during this tumultuous time and see that justice is brought to his name,” Moton tweeted. “He needs you! His family needs you. Your student athletes NEED YOU! Black people need you!”
He elaborated on his challenge when he spoke with the News & Observer.
“We all coach kids who look like George Floyd,” Moton said. “And if we’re being completely honest, in Power 5 football and Power 5 basketball, a lot of coaches have created generational wealth from the labor of kids who look like George Floyd. Can somebody say something now? Is that asking too much for you to say something?”
Moton added, “Your grandkids’ kids are going to eat because this guy won you a national championship, or this guy could run this football. And so now when people like him get killed, it’s silent. I don’t get that. And I know you see it. In my mind right now, silence is agreement. In order for all of this to change, we need everybody bringing a voice of reasoning to this. Not just a black outcry. We still have to do our part, but it still takes voices and other people to echo the same message.”
Never one to muffle his opinion on anything, Moton said this incident is “too personal to be walking on eggshells.”
He plans to set up a meeting with his all-black basketball team to talk about the latest incident where a man who looks like them was killed by the same people sworn to protect. Moton already warns his team about going out, and constantly tries to encourage them to stay on campus or in their apartments to have fun. But college kids are going to be college kids. This latest incident only means it’s time for another tough talk.
“At our practices and in our program we have conversations about stuff like this and now we have to go back into it,” Moton said. “Now we have to have a Zoom call and seminar about that. Those are the conversations that we have to have.”
This story was originally published May 28, 2020 at 5:16 PM with the headline "LeVelle Moton says he and Raymond Felton had terrifying incident with police in 2005."
