A news crew tracked down 46-year-old homeless man Daniel Kellerher to hear more about an incident during which he was allegedly violently stepped on by Houston Rockets forward Terrence Jones.
“I didn’t do nothing,” Kellerher tells reporters about the event, which occurred early Wednesday morning in Jones' hometown of Portland. “I was laying there sleeping. It was a shock, you know? Something like an electric fence went through me at that point in time."
“Why the heck does he want to mess with the homeless?That’s what I can’t figure out, why these guys out here think they’re better than us.”
A patrol officer arrested the 6-foot-9, 252-pound Jones after reportedly spotting him stomp on the homeless man's leg as the basketball player left a nightclub with a group of people at 2 a.m. Beforehand, the 21-year-old Rocket shouted "wake up" at Kellerher and another man who was sleeping next to him in a doorway.
The victim explains that he's been on the streets for nearly two decades, struggling with drug addiction and an array of health issues. Yet he says he's never been attacked even once before.
“Why the heck does he want to mess with the homeless?" Kellerher asks. "That’s what I can’t figure out, why these guys out here think they’re better than us, because we sleep in a doorway and they sleep in a god dang bed?”
Kellerher says he still feels a considerable amount of pain and has trouble even discussing the incident.
“You know it don’t feel good," he says. "It’s hard. I just want to cry. It’s just hard to talk about because it hurts. I didn’t think anybody would ever do that.”
Meanwhile, Jones — whose attorney describes him as "a gentleman with not a mean bone in his body" — has been charged with misdemeanor harassment and has filed a not-guilty plea. A court date is set for Sept. 6.
The Houston Rockets have yet to comment on the charges.
Watch the full report on Portland's KGW Ch. 8:
Terrance Jones in court.
