Update: On Friday, Dec 11, the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office said Gerrel Williams faces child abuse charges .
“The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, along with our local state attorney’s office, has reviewed this case and the decision has been made that charges for child abuse will be filed, regardless of parent’s decision not to press charges,” a Sheriff’s Office statement said.
Original article:
A new viral video shows a Georgia football coach hitting a young child athlete multiple times during a game in Kissimmee.
As of Thursday, the video has been viewed more than 3.5 million times since it was posted on Twitter on Wednesday. The video shows the coach, Gerrel Williams of Savannah, hitting one of the players as he walked toward him with other teammates. Some times goes by and then Williams is seen hitting the same boy, sending him to the ground.
The incident happened on Dec. 7 in Kissimmee when the Savanah Gators were competing in the American Youth Football (AYF) National Championship. The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office incident report said a deputy spoke to the head of AYF who said Williams was expelled from the league and was banned from attending future games. The same report said the deputy made contact with the player’s mother who is not pressing charges at this point.
Williams also worked at a detention center for the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office, which confirmed to WSAV he is no longer an employee. The issued a statement to News 3 saying they “are very disturbed” by Williams’ actions and do not condone his behavior.
The Savannah Police Department posted about the incident Thursday on Facebook, saying they received questions from many concerned members of the community about the video. They soon learned the incident happened in Kissimmee and was under investigation by the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office.
On Thursday, WSAV reported a friend of Gerrel Williams posted his apology video on social media where he claims the player and his parents have forgiven him.
“I’m not going to make excuses for what I did. I was wrong. I shouldn’t have disciplined him in public, I should’ve waited until we got back,” Williams said.
“At the end of the day, I apologize to him, the kids, the city down here and my family back at home.”