The family of deceased North Carolina Central player Devin Butts has filed a lawsuit against the university, according to numerous media reports. The 22-year-old collapsed and died in 2023 during an offseason workout.

The lawsuit says NCCU did not have any life-saving equipment available and the response to Butts’ cardiac arrest was too slow.

The family also places blame on the men’s basketball program being allowed to let student-athletes work out after hours unsupervised, a violation of school policy. The suit, in so many words, accuses NCCU of allowing the athletic department, and men’s basketball in particular, of running its own ship separate from the rest of the university.

On April 30, 2023, Butts and other teammates had a late-night, unsupervised, off-season workout in McDougald-McLendon Arena. A little after midnight, Butts went into cardia arrest and collapsed. EMS didn’t arrive until almost 20 minutes later and restarted his heart, the lawsuit says. Those 20 minutes were a matter of life and death. Butts died four days later at Duke Hospital.

North Carolina lawyers Jason Burton and Walter Burton filed the lawsuit in early May.