A 3-year-old boy from Florida named Nevada has become the star of a video that has caused a major stir on social media. During a soccer game, the boy repeatedly dribbled past older players and scored a string of goals. His parents say organizers of the event didn’t like the child’s skills, limited his playing time and then… called the police. Local police confirmed that an intervention took place, but gave a very different account of the reasons for it. What happened?
The incident took place on Saturday, Oct. 24, during a children’s soccer event in Winter Park, Florida. In the video posted by the family, 3-year-old Nevada can be seen confidently dribbling the ball past other players and scoring goal after goal. His parents say the boy scored as many as 10 goals, although during a half-hour game he was allowed to play for only about 12 minutes. According to their account, organizers took him off the field several times because the other participants didn’t get a chance to take the ball. At one point, police officers arrived at the scene.
The boy’s father said officers were “sicced” on a 3-year-old because he “was too good” and held on to the ball for too long. Nevada’s mother, Martasia Griffin, told the program “The Breakfast Club” that her son had been criticized for his skills throughout the season. According to her, parents of other players complained that their children couldn’t take part in the game “on equal terms.” Griffin said she couldn’t explain to a 3-year-old why he should be removed from the field just because he plays soccer well. She added that her son was deeply affected by the police intervention and no longer wants to go back to the same place.
Winter Park police gave a different version of events. According to the police report, at 9:53 a.m. on Saturday, a representative of the i9 Sports league called the emergency line to report a disturbance by one of the parents. In a recording of the call with the dispatcher that was made public, he said a woman was following him around, insulting him and posting material about him online. Police confirmed that organizers asked the family to leave the premises and offered a refund of their participation fees.
Officers stressed that the intervention concerned a dispute between adults, not the behavior of the 3-year-old.
In the end, no one was detained in connection with the incident, no trespass order was issued and no one was forced to leave the park. Police classified the incident as a civil dispute, not a criminal matter.
The i9 Sports Maitland/Winter Park league said it had contacted the family and begun an internal inquiry, including conversations with those involved in the incident.
The video featuring the 3-year-old has since disappeared from the TikTok account where it was originally posted.
Editor: JŁ
