A Special Olympics basketball player was taken by paramedics for medical treatment on Thursday after falling unconscious near LBCC’s W and R buildings, where a “BuzzBallz” alcohol container was also found and disposed of at the scene by police and was suspected to be the cause.
The occurrence happened around 5:30 p.m. near the aquatic center where the Special Olympics team congregated for their usual practice.
A teammate by the name of Toni witnessed the interaction and confirmed it was due to alcohol use.
“One of our teammates did a dare and drank like a big thing of a BuzzBallz and passed out, he was drunk,” Toni said.
The victim’s coach alleged that the dare came from an LBCC student, who had left the scene by the time paramedics and police made it to campus.
The coach said that the alleged student had recorded the victim “to be posted on the Internet, for a prank.”
Paramedics took the unconscious victim to receive medical treatment with the accompanying police saying “they were still investigating.”
The investigation is “still ongoing” as of Saturday and “is being looked into by a detective,” according to Long Beach police department’s public information officer, Sgt. Stein.
Stein has told the Viking that the investigation should “wrap up this week” and a full police report of the case will be “provided in the next few days”.
