Last week on Basketball Wives, Malaysia had “that talk” with her oldest son and it was heartbreaking. Mothers of black sons know exactly what that talk is. It’s especially hard for Malaysia, whose own brother Dontae Hayes was shot and killed by a police officer in 2013. He was just 20 years old at the time.
On December 31, 2013, Dontae Hayes was approached by police in a park in Riverside, California. At the time, he had a warrant for failure to appear in court and should have been headed to jail.
Dontae was shot and killed after officers claimed that he pulled a handgun out of his waistband. A friend of the family has challenged that claim, saying that Dontae did not have a weapon on him.
Taffy Hayes, Donate’s mother, filed an unlawful death lawsuit against the City of Riverside in 2014. She asked for at least $25,000 in damages for the death of her son.
Understandably, the loss of her brother has been hard on Malaysia Pargo. She admitted on Basketball Wives that she still has extreme anxiety around police and that as her children grow, she’s become more and more worried for their safety.
Last week, we saw Malaysia sit down with her oldest son, Jannero Pargo Jr., and talk to him about what happened with her brother Dontae. He was clearly very uncomfortable with the talk and so was Malaysia but it was something she felt that she had to do.
Malaysia revealed during the episode that she was asked to go pick up her brother but that she didn’t want to go. Now she is still full of regret for not heading out to help her brother that night.
This is one of the heavier topics to be discussed on Basketball Wives on what has been a particularly heavy season. Even though the loss of her brother happened four and a half years ago, it still affects Malaysia and due to the nature of the loss, makes her worry about the well-being of her own children.
Basketball Wives airs on Sundays at 10/9c on VH1.