Five teenage basketball players from a Washington DC area AAU program and their coach are facing charges after a late night snack run at a Florida 7-Eleven turned into a full theft investigation. The team, part of the Run It Up travel basketball program, was in Polk County, Florida for the Puma NXTPro tournament and staying at a Solterra Resort vacation rental when the incident happened early Thursday morning.
According to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, the theft happened around 4:10 a.m. at a 7-Eleven on Ronald Reagan Parkway in Davenport. Investigators say the five teens walked to the store and rushed in, then concealed and walked out with items including Doritos, gummies, Starburst Minis, a sausage, lemonade and grape and orange Slurpees. A store clerk confronted them, and the teens fled. Deputies later found three of the suspects near the entrance to the resort after they placed the stolen goods into a backpack and hid it in the bushes. The total value of everything taken came out to $37.60.
The five teens have been identified as 17 year old Tavion Rashaud Hale of Washington DC, 16 year old Taureon Darnell Ferrell of Washington DC, 16 year old Obai Sankoh Sheriff of Lanham, Maryland, 16 year old James Thomas Hall of Washington DC, and 17 year old Tyjuan Grover of Washington DC.
The coach, identified as 27 year old Malik Abdul Harvey of Bryans Road, Maryland, was not accused of taking part in the theft itself. According to the sheriff’s office, Harvey had arranged for the players to take an Uber to a second Airbnb rental while the adults on the trip traveled separately, meaning the boys arrived at the property without any adult supervision before the incident happened. Harvey’s charges stem from what happened after the theft, not during it. He is facing felony child neglect, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, accessory after the fact and resisting an officer without violence, after investigators say he lied to protect two of the teens during questioning.
There is a detail here that makes Harvey’s situation stand out beyond this one trip. He is employed by the Department of Juvenile Services at the Cheltenham Youth Detention Center, where his actual job involves assisting and empowering at risk youth. The basketball trip had no connection to that professional role, but the contrast between his day job and the charges he is now facing is hard to ignore.
What makes this story spread the way it has is the gap between the seriousness of the arrests and the size of what was actually taken. Five teenagers and their coach are now facing real legal consequences, felony charges among them, over less than 40 dollars in candy and drinks. A trip built around a basketball tournament, the kind of trip meant to open doors for young players in front of scouts and coaches, is now something these five teens and their coach will have to explain far past the summer it happened in.
