Phoenix Suns' Morris Twins Under Investigation for Alleged Felony Assault
Twin brothers Marcus and Markieff Morris, 25, who both play forward positions on the Phoenix Suns team, along with three others allegedly committed felony aggravated assault against a man the two believed had sent "inappropriate" text messages to their mother, according to The Arizona Republic.
As gathered by the local news site, while no arrests and no charges have been filed yet, a spokesman for the Maricopa County Attorney's Office confirmed Tuesday afternoon that prosecutors are continuing to review the case submitted by the police against the Morris twins and their three accomplices.
The alleged assault occurred in January at the Nina Mason Pulliam Recreation & Sports Complex near 15th Avenue and Colter Street, where Eric Hood, the alleged victim, and an unnamed woman had been watching a basketball game. Hood told investigators he and the woman were leaving the facility when they were accosted by Julius Kane, 25, the man he believes who told the Morris twins about the "inappropriate" text messages. Hood says he was attacked by five people who assaulted him to the point of unconsciousness. Witnesses told police they saw the five subjects flee in a Rolls-Royce Phantom, but none of them were able to identify any of them.
Hood, who later identified Kane and the Morris twins as three of his five attackers, suffered a broken nose, a large knot on the back of his head and abrasions. The unnamed woman who accompanied Hood to the game also confirmed that Kane and the twins were part of the group that attacked Hood.
Hood told investigators he had been a mentor to the Morris twins and had supported them financially for a time when they were high school students in Philadelphia but they later had a falling out. The alleged victim, himself a former professional basketball player who now works as a talent scout, told police that in the text in question, he merely said to the Morris twins' mother, Thomasine Morris, and that he'd always be there for her. He said he believed it may have been wrongly interpreted to mean that their relationship had become sexual.
For their part, the Morris twins have denied assaulting the reported victim, whom they also claim not to know, and their mother denies having been in contact with the man on the day of the incident, though police reportedly found evidence to the contrary.