Family of late NCCU basketball player sues school for wrongful death, negligence
Former N.C. Central basketball player Devin Butts’ family is suing the university over the 22-year-old’s death in 2023, saying life-saving equipment was not available and the emergency response was too slow after he suffered cardiac arrest during an off-season workout.
Butts’ family claims NCCU allowed basketball coach LeVelle Moton to disregard school policy by allowing and encouraging athletes to work out unsupervised after hours, according to the lawsuit filed in state court, obtained by The News & Observer. It was one of many examples of the school failing to provide reasonable care, the lawsuit said.
The complaint said administrators at the Durham university “created and/or allowed to exist a culture among the athletic department, particularly the men’s basketball team” that violated school policies and NCAA limitations on athletic activities.
NCCU has not responded to The News & Observer’s email request seeking comment as of Tuesday night.
The fatal incident occurred after Butts joined three of his N.C. Central basketball teammates late at night on April 30, 2023. They entered the school’s McDougald-McLendon Arena through a side door, unlocked and propped open, for off-season work on the court.
It’s the kind of work they were expected to do on a voluntary basis, playing one-on-one and shooting baskets with no coaches or school administrators around, the lawsuit states.
But around 12:30 a.m., after April 30 turned to May 1, Butts suffered a sudden cardiac event and collapsed to the court. With no AED accessible and no one around to help, Butts’ teammates called 911 at 12:35 a.m.
He was down 18 minutes before Durham County EMTs arrived at 12:48 a.m. and restarted his heart, the lawsuit stated. But that time was long enough to deprive his brain of much-needed oxygen, and he died four days later at Duke University Hospital.
The only AED located in the building that night, the lawsuit alleges, was in a trainer’s room, which was locked and located in a different part of the building.
“NCCU failed to exercise reasonable care to establish and enforce AED policies,” the lawsuit states, “to provide reasonable AED training and to ensure that AEDs are readily available at all NCCU athletic facilities.”
Butts’ death certificate lists ventricular tachycardia as a cause of death. AEDs are able to restore a normal rhythm when a patient’s heart falls into ventricular tachycardia after a sudden cardiac event.
“Devin was denied essential, life-saving medical treatment that more likely than not would have restored his heart beat to a normal sinus rhythm and mitigated consequences of his cardiac event,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit, filed with the North Carolina Industrial Commission, seeks monetary damages for Devin Butts’ pain and suffering, medical expenses related to the incident, loss of reasonably expected net income plus punitive damages.
The lawsuit also criticizes the NCCU administration for allowing the basketball team to prop open a door to the arena to allow its players access after hours when school policy strictly forbids it.
“To circumvent NCCU restrictions on access to McDougald-McLendon Arena and NCAA limitations on team-related activities,” the lawsuit states, “student-athletes regularly entered the basketball facility outside of normal working hours through a side door that remained propped open and unlocked and participated in unsupervised athletically related activities.”
Lack of live-saving equipment
Jason Burton, the family’s Raleigh-based attorney, said the family had no comment beyond the lawsuit.
But Derex Butts, Devins’ father, told The N&O in 2023 he was alarmed by the lack of life-saving equipment and basic life-saving knowledge.
“That is one of my concerns, and it’s one of the things that needs to be addressed,” said Derex Butts in an 2023 interview. He was a college basketball player himself.
“Kids should know basic CPR, especially if they gotta be in the gym at one in the morning without a coach,” Derex Butts said. “It’s just something that I’ll push for, for every school, for every kid. Because who knows? If they knew basic CPR, who knows? We may not be having this conversation.”
Devin Butts, from Macon, Georgia, played at Mississippi State, Louisiana and New Mexico Junior College before transferring to NCCU in 2022.
He played one season with the Eagles, appearing in 17 games, and had one season of eligibility remaining. He was set to complete his college degree after a summer session in June 2023.
This story was originally published June 3, 2025 at 9:28 PM with the headline "Family of late NCCU basketball player sues school for wrongful death, negligence."