An assistant basketball coach at Wake Forest has been charged with misdemeanor assault in the incident.
The parents of a Florida man who died after being punched by a stranger he apparently mistook for his Uber driver are sharing their outrage over his death.
"When we saw the way his face looked, we knew that that wasn't just a normal, 'don't knock on my car' hit," Sandor Szabo's mother, Donna Kent, told Inside Edition. "I just hope that there's some justice."
The tragic confrontation took place in Queens, New York, last Sunday when 35-year-old Szabo was apparently searching for his car home after celebrating his stepsister's wedding.
He reportedly knocked on the window of a parked SUV on 29th Street near 41st Ave in Long Island City. The SUV’s driver stepped out and, “following a confrontation,” punched Szabo, who fell back and hit his head on the concrete sidewalk, according to police. Szabo was taken to the hospital but later died.
Jamill Jones, an assistant basketball coach at Wake Forest University, has been charged with misdemeanor assault in connection with the incident. He has pleaded not guilty and his lawyer called the death a "tragic accident."
But that's not enough for Szabo's family.
"When we found out it was an assault yesterday, we were shocked," Kent said. "If his basketball players go up, bring the ball down and their elbow hits somebody in the face, it's an accident. But if their basketball player gets off the bench and goes and punches somebody in the face ... that's not an accident.
"If you had stayed and stayed with him the whole time to make sure he was OK, that would make me feel like you were a decent human being," Kent added.
They said they are haunted by the last moments they spent with their son, who was in a coma.
"Everybody held his hand all the time," said Szabo's father, Bob Kent. "There wasn't a minute that would go by just in case he came back or there was some miracle that would bring him back."
But Szabo died Tuesday. His parents have drawn what comfort they can from the fact that six of their son's organs were donated to people in need of transplants.
"Even in his death — and murder — he gave so many people a second chance at life that would potentially be able to survive," the distraught father said.
RELATED STORIES
