A video showing a young boy in Connecticut hiding from a police car as he was playing basketball in his driveway has gone viral, even getting the attention of NBA superstar LeBron James. The child’s father, Stacey Pierre-Louis, shared the footage in an Instagram post last week, asking his followers, “Why does he feel like he has to hide when he isn’t doing anything wrong?”
The clip shows his 10-year-old son, Eliah, dribbling a ball when he suddenly stops in his tracks and then steps behind a vehicle to hide from view as a patrol car drives by. A moment later, the police are gone and Eliah resumes playing basketball.
His father says he debated whether to post the video. “I live in an affluent neighborhood in Trumbull with a really good school system. This kid has all the opportunity to do/be whatever he wants unlike many kids who look like him because resources aren’t made available. Why does he feel like he has to hide when he isn’t doing anything wrong?” he wrote in the post.
He said he asked Eliah why he did that, and the boy responded: “because they killed George Floyd.”
“I didn’t know what and still don’t know what to say to him to make it better,” he reflected in the caption.
Five days after posting the video, Stacey Pierre-Louis, a client advisor at a local BMW dealership, told CBS News that Eliah is “doing well” and he’s “optimistic that this can add to making a change for the better.” He said they’ve welcomed the positive attention they’ve received.
“Since I’ve shared this video, I’ve been overwhelmed with support which leads me to believe that there is far more good in this world than there is bad,” he said Tuesday. “So it is our hope that this video can be used as a tool to help continue to bring us together in this fight and inspire change for the better.”
He said he was at work and felt “helplessness” when he first saw the video, wishing he could have been there to help his son feel safe. “But unfortunately this is the reality for millions of Black and minority children across this nation and the world,” he told CBS News.
“My priority as a parent and family man is to protect my son and children from the atrocities and injustices of the world and provide them with the tools to be whole, productive and fearless contributing members of the world,” he said. “Unfortunately, in the state of times and for reasons we all see daily, it makes it difficult. But as many parents are doing, I can only continue to educate and prepare my son with the truth and arm him with the tools to continue to create change. It’s my hope that when he becomes a man, he’ll then be able to do the same for his family.”
The video has been shared all over social media and hundreds of people have commented. LeBron James also caught wind of the video on Twitter and summed up his feelings about the clip, saying it “Breaks my Heart.”
The fact that James responded to the video came as a welcome surprise to the family — especially Eliah.
“My son was over the moon to see that his favorite player noticed him and that LeBron saw him playing,” Pierre-Louis said. “The first question he asked is if LeBron saw that he made the shot at the end of the video!”
