N.Y. high school basketball player collapses during practice, dies

FLUSHING, N.Y. (UPI) — A 16-year-old high school basketball player collapsed during practice and died Wednesday in Queens, New York, police said.

Lenny Pierre, a 6-foot-6 junior, was working out with his team in John Bowne High School in Flushing when he collapsed just after noon, police told the New York Post.

He was pronounced dead at New York Presbyterian Hospital-Queens.

“He said while he was playing, they saw him a little shaky,” his mother, Edna Georges, told WNBC-TV. “They told him have a seat. He said he was lightheaded. Just moments later, he collapsed.”

Georges said her son had no health problems.

“He was not allergic to anything,” she said. “He was not on any medication. Healthy as you could imagine.”

The medical examiner will determine the cause of death, and investigation is ongoing.

“I am heartbroken to hear of Lenny Pierre’s passing,” Mayor Bill de Blasio posted on Twitter. “As a parent, and as a father of student athletes, I can only imagine the pain and sorrow being felt by Lenny’s family, loved ones and classmates On behalf of 8.6 million New Yorkers, I extend our deepest condolences. We will be with this family now and in the future as we mourn the loss of one of our City’s children.”

John Bowne High, a public school, had an enrollment of 3,545 students in the 2016-17 school year, according to the New York State Education Department.

Reporting by Allen Cone

United Press International

+ postsBio

United Press International is an international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines and radio and television stations for most of the 20th century.

This author does not have any more posts.