OAG won’t charge anyone in Taracatac accident

04/25/25—The Office of the Attorney General said it will not charge any person in the accident that left Webster Taracatac paralyzed from the shoulder down following a scuffle in a March 21, 2025 game at the Gillette Multi-Purpose Center in Gualo Rai.

The OAG identified the persons in the scuffle with Taracatac as Johsonlee Suba and his son, Aiden.

“From the surveillance, it did not look that Aiden intended to have Taractac fall the way he did. It seemed that as they wrestled, they both lost balance and fell. After they fell, Aiden was not seen making any more attempts to go after Taractac, before being pulled away,” read a “basketball fight intake” memo from chief prosecutor Chester Hinds to Attorney General Edward Manibusan.

Hinds added that from the interviews done and the surveillance, there is no evidence that Taractac's unfortunate injuries were intentionally caused by Aiden.

“These types of situations happen in sports. Nothing that was done seemed excessively violent or premeditated. Therefore, the Commonwealth will not charge anyone in this incident,” Hinds said.

Taracatac’s sister, Sheila, said the family will not make a statement yet on the OAG decision as they’re still weighing their options.

Hinds started his memo by saying that fights or scuffles during sports games are often seen as part of the game. 

“For an act during a game to result in criminal charges it must go beyond the scope of the game. Actions that go beyond the accepted norms of the sport, such as excessive violence, or premeditated attacks, could be charged criminally depending on severity of the injury sustained.”

In this case, Taractac sustained serious injury from a scuffle that took place during basketball game on March 21, 2024 at approximately 7pm. The person who was mainly involved in the scuffle with Taractac is Aiden Suba.

Due to level of injury sustained by Taractac, Hinds said the Commonwealth would consider aggravated assault and battery, and/or assault and battery as possible charges.

For the Commonwealth to charge a person with either of these, he said the Commonwealth must believe that the act that caused the harm was done intentionally, and that there is enough evidence to able to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.

In this case, Hinds said DPS investigated the fight/scuffle that took place. DPS interviewed members of both teams, the referees/league officials, and some of the people in attendance.

According to surveillance, in this incident, the basketball game was in progress, when Taracatac went up for a rebound. At that time, players from the opposing team swiped at Taractac try to get the ball. The closest opposing player, Johnsonlee Suba made physical contact with Taractac's arm, and then backed up with his arms up to play defense. The referee called a foul on Suba and stopped the game.

Taractac, in a statement, said that he was elbowed by another player. The surveillance video does not show when that happened. If Taractac was elbowed, during an attempt to get the rebound, that would still be within the scope of the game.

After getting the rebound, and getting swiped at by Suba, Taractac intentionally threw the ball at Johnsonlee, hitting him in the face.

“Taractac throwing the ball at Johnsonlee, even though intentional, could still be considered within the scope of the game. Sometimes things like this happen in games where there is physical contact. Players get frustrated and sometimes do things like throw the ball at another player. Taractac should not have thrown the ball at the other player, but throwing the ball at the other player during the game does not rise to the level of an assault and battery,” said Hinds.

Unfortunately, even though not a crime, when Taractac throwing the ball it set off a chain of events that ended with Taractac being seriously injured, he said.

“After Taractac threw the ball, Suba covered his face and stepped forward, Taractac also stepped forward with his arms extended to push Suba. At that point another player, Suba's son Aiden grabbed Taractac around the head and neck area. Taractac then grabbed Aiden. Taractac and Aiden tussled back and forth. There were no punches thrown at this time, by either the Aiden, Suba or Taractac. Many other players from both teams got involved. From the video it looked like those players, to include Suba were grabbing at Taractac and Aiden to break them up or pull them apart.”

Hinds said both Taractac and Aiden were still grabbing and holding each other and they eventually fell down.

“From the video it looked like Aiden had Taractac in a headlock and Taractac was holding on to Aiden's body. Aiden looked to be pulling at Taractac when they stumbled and fell down. Taractac fell face forward and was injured.” 

All of this happened within a matter of seconds, Hinds wrote.

"Taractac threw the ball at 17 seconds from the start of the video, then Aiden grabbed Taractac at 18 seconds from the start of the video. They tussled back and forth until falling at 25 seconds from the start of the video. From the start of the incident to the end took approximately 8 seconds. Within that time there were no punches thrown.”

Hinds added that Aiden did grab Taractac but he was never in a situation where he had control over Taractac.

By Mark Rabago