North Allegheny football coach accused of strangling youth basketball coach at game
BURGETTSTOWN, Pa. (KDKA) - A youth basketball player's dad was caught on camera allegedly strangling a coach after a fight broke out during a game.
KDKA-TV learned that dad is a coach himself for the North Allegheny High School football team. The game was a Pittsburgh Basketball Club game that was played at the Burgettstown Elementary Center last week.
The parent, Scott McMullen, is facing a list of serious charges including strangulation and simple assault. But his attorney says the video that has surfaced on social media proves differently.
"I've seen the video and the video is pretty clear that my client is not the only one that is involved in any kind of activity," said attorney Phil DiLucente.
In the video recorded by a parent who was filming her son's game, you can see shortly after the whistle blows, a Moon player in red aggressively goes after a Burgettstown player in white.
The Burgettstown coach immediately runs over and tries to separate the two players.
While he's attempting to break the fight up, a Moon parent, now identified as Scott McMullen, comes off the bleachers onto the court and allegedly grabs the coach from behind and begins choking him.
"Can you imagine your son and another player in a youth league having fisticuffs? The next thing you know there's an adult male placing hands on your child," DiLucente adds.
McMullen is an assistant football coach for North Allegheny High School. His attorney, Phil DiLucente, argues his client did what any parent would do to protect their child by any means possible. That's why he says he's shocked his client was even charged, let alone the only one charged.
DiLucente points out that after McMullen allegedly grabs the coach, two Burgettstown fans try to pull him off the coach, one of whom jumped on McMullen's back.
"To just suggest my client was the only person who was involved in criminal activity I don't appreciate," he added.
Meantime, the Pittsburgh Basketball Club has banned McMullen from future games and suspended his son for a year, which DiLucente calls astonishing.
"I thought it was a tad overzealous," he said.
KDKA reached out to the North Allegheny School District superintendent to get the status of McMullen's appointment and is waiting to hear back.