LOS ANGELES (CN) — The son of NBA and Los Angeles Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is facing criminal charges for stabbing his neighbor in June during an argument over trash bins outside their Southern California homes, the Orange County district attorney’s office announced Tuesday.
Adam Abdul-Jabbar, 28, got into a heated argument on June 9 with his 60-year-old neighbor he shares a driveway with at his San Clemente, California, home.
Abdul-Jabbar’s neighbor confronted the NBA legend’s son for not taking in the trash bins for his elderly roommate.
According to prosecutors, Abdul-Jabbar then repeatedly stabbed the man in the head with a hunting knife, fracturing his skull and causing bleeding from his brain.
The man, identified in media reports as Ray Winsor, was driven to a hospital by his wife and suffered so much blood loss he collapsed outside an emergency room.
“I think he’s got some serious problems,” Winsor told KTLA after the stabbing. “I think he tried to kill me. I mean, it could’ve been one inch this way, one inch that way, I could’ve been dead.”
Authorities arrested Abdul-Jabbar the day of the stabbing incident but he was later released after posting bail.
Abdul-Jabbar is charged with three felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon and one felony count of carrying a dagger. The charges carry three enhancements of “inflicting great bodily injury,” according to prosecutors.
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement Tuesday the attack was “ruthless” and unwarranted.
“A dispute between neighbors should never escalate to violence, much less the ruthless nature of this attack,” Spitzer said. “Violence of any kind will not be tolerated in Orange County and those who choose to inflict violence on others will be prosecuted by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office to the fullest extent of the law.”
Abdul-Jabbar is scheduled to be arraigned Sep. 9 at the Harbor Justice Center in Orange County.
“It was the complaining witness in this matter who initiated the altercation and it was Mr. Abdul-Jabbar who contacted the police to report it,” Abdul-Jabbar’s attorney Shawn Holley said. “For these reasons and many more, we are disappointed that this case was filed, but stand ready to address the charges in court.”
Abdul-Jabbar faces a maximum sentence of nine years and eight months in state prison if convicted on all counts.
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