The family of former North Carolina Central basketball player Devin Butts, who died of cardiac arrest during an offseason workout in 2023, is suing the university for wrongful death and negligence, according to a state court filing obtained by The News & Observer. The suit alleges that NC Central permitted men’s basketball coach LeVelle Moton to bypass university policy by allowing players to participate in unsupervised, after-hours workouts.
Butts collapsed shortly after midnight on May 1, 2023, while working out with three teammates inside North Carolina Central’s McDougald-McLendon Arena. According to the lawsuit, the players accessed the facility through a side entrance that had been left open — a routine move for late-night, unsupervised sessions that the lawsuit describes as encouraged by team culture, despite a lack of formal oversight.
While playing one-on-one and shooting baskets, Butts went into cardiac arrest and collapsed on the court around 12:30 a.m. With no athletic trainers on site and no accessible AED nearby, his teammates called 911 at 12:35 a.m. Emergency responders arrived approximately 13 minutes later and were able to restart his heart, but the delay deprived his brain of oxygen. He died four days later at Duke University Hospital at age 22.
The complaint states university administrators “created and/or allowed to exist a culture among the athletic department, particularly the men’s basketball team,” that violated institutional policies and NCAA regulations.
It adds, “NCCU failed to exercise reasonable care to establish and enforce AED policies to provide reasonable AED training and to ensure that AEDs are readily available at all NCCU athletic facilities.”
Butts’ cause of death was listed as ventricular tachycardia, a potentially fatal heart rhythm disturbance that can often be corrected with the use of an AED. His family contends that access to an AED could have restored his heartbeat and prevented the severe brain damage that ultimately led to his death.
“Devin was denied essential, life-saving medical treatment that more likely than not would have restored his heartbeat to a normal sinus rhythm and mitigated consequences of his cardiac event,” the lawsuit states.
The complaint, filed with the North Carolina Industrial Commission, seeks damages for Butts’ pain and suffering, associated medical costs, lost future earnings and punitive compensation.
Butts began his college basketball career at Mississippi State in 2019–20 as a three-star recruit out of Macon (Ga.) Stratford Academy. He later transferred to Louisiana for the 2020–21 season, then spent a year at New Mexico Junior College before landing at NC Central for the 2022–23 campaign. In his lone season with the Eagles, Butts appeared in 17 games and averaged 5.4 points.
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