Following the ambush-style shooting of two Los Angeles deputies over the weekend, LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva challenged NBA star LeBron James to match and double the reward money being offered for information on the gunman who attacked them.
“This challenge is to LeBron James. I want you to match that and double that reward,” Villanueva said during an interview with KABC Radio on Monday. “I know you care about law enforcement. You expressed a very interesting statement about your perspective on race relations and on officer-involved shootings and the impact that it has on the African-American community. And I appreciated that. But likewise, we need to appreciate that respect for life goes across professions, across races, creeds, and I’d like to see LeBron James step up to the plate and double that.”
According to Villanueva, the reward money for information about the gunman who shot the pair of deputies, a 31-year-old female and 24-year-old male, has reached $175,000 after two individuals donated $75,000 to add to the $100,000 that’s being offered by the county.
Villanueva did not make it clear which “interesting statement” by James he was referencing, although the 35-year-old has been vocal about police shootings involving Black people in the past.
“I know people get tired of hearing me say it but we are scared as a Black people in America,” he said last month. “Black men, Black women, Black kids, we are terrified.”
The NBA star, who is getting ready to play in the Western Conference finals in the league’s Florida bubble, had not publicly responded to the sheriff’s challenge as of early Tuesday morning, according to CBS Los Angeles.
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