Thanks to TMZ for details on this story. The celebrity news TV show is reporting that Shaquille O’Neal has helped pay for funeral services for a young boy who died in a car accident in Louisiana.
TMZ says the boy – Keshon Batiste – was killed while riding as a back-seat passenger in a car with four other children and one adult. The accident happened when the car ran a stop sign, crashed through a ditch and hit a tree in the town of Breaux Bridge.
Another young boy, 12 year-old Trayvon Alexander was killed along with Batiste. TMZ has reported Batiste as 11 years old, other news sources have said he was 12 years old. The accident happened April 10th.
TMZ says the family of the other boy had insurance to cover final expenses for their son, but Batiste’s family did not… forcing them to start a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for funeral expenses.
Shaq went to college at Louisiana State University, less than an hour’s drive from the scene of the accident. According to media reports, an old friend of O’Neal’s, Lafayette City Marshal’s Office retired chief deputy Phil Conrad, was contacted by Shaq.
‘He (Shaq) called me and asked me to reach out to the family on his behalf and get back to him,’ Conrad said.
‘When I called him back and told him that the family had raised over $3,000 in a GoFundMe, but was still short of what they needed, he immediately stopped what he was doing and sent money to me, and I wrote a check.’
The two boys were laid to rest on Saturday.
Over the years, O’Neal has reached out after learning of similar situations, but he’s opted to keep a low profile about it.
Back in November 2009 he paid for the funeral of a five-year-old North Carolina girl who was kidnapped and killed.
The hall of famer also paid for the burial services of a 13-year-old Georgia boy who accidentally shot and killed himself while playing with a loaded gun as he was live on Instagram in April 2017.
And just last December he paid for the funeral of a seven-year-old girl in Texas who was shot and killed while driving with her mother and three sisters.