KANSAS CITY, Mo. -An argument during a basketball game escalated outside where one of the players was punched in the face, fell backwards, and his head hit a curb.
Leavenworth police officers were dispatched just after 6:30 p.m. Feb. 6 to the Leavenworth Hotel to check for a disturbance, according to a court document.
An officer found 18-year-old Eric Miller, a senior at Leavenworth High School, bleeding from the back of his head.
An officer held a shirt behind Miller’s head to try to stop the bleeding, the court document said.
A second officer also helped before an ambulance arrived and took Miller to a hospital, where he died the next day.
Videos reviewed by a Leavenworth police officer led police to discover that Miller and the second teenager had argued and were separated from others during the game, according to the court document.
Miller and Ismael Caleb Salinas-Richardson were on a street when Miller moved and Salinas-Richardson hit Miller in the face.
Officers contacted Salinas-Richardson by phone, and he refused to tell them where he was or to meet with police.
He was arrested at a home in Grandview, Missouri.
Leavenworth County Prosecutor Todd Thompson charged Salinas-Richardson with manslaughter.
No word on a court date for Salinas-Richardson.
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