Two African-American basketball players were stabbed on Saturday night at a terrace in the center of Braila, a city in Eastern Romania. The two athletes are Darrell Bowie, 24, and Joseph McClain, 25, both players at ACS Cuza Sport Braila.

They went out with other teammates on Saturday evening. While at the terrace, they were attacked by local gang members, who stabbed them. One of the players had his lung punctured, according to Digi24.ro. Both players were operated at the Braila Emergency Hospital and asked to be transferred to hospitals in the U.S.

The man who stabbed the two Americans is apparently a local underworld leader named Daniel Gabriel Husein, who is also known as Dasaev, according to sources familiar with the investigation quoted by local Digi24.ro. The scandal allegedly started from a girl who was with the group of aggressors and at one point went to the table where the athletes were sitting.

Darrell Bowie and Joseph McClain had arrived to Braila only 7 days before the incident, being transferred by the local basketball team led by local investor Mircea Totolici. He said he had other African-American players at his club in recent years but no such incidents ever occurred. He added that the team currently has five American players but that the others are scared after the incident.

“It’s a very serious incident and a delicate moment for the city and the team, but we hope to move past it,” Totolici said, according to Digi24.ro.

The U.S. Embassy to Bucharest said on Sunday that it was closely following the incident.

A similar incident took place in October 2011, when an African-American basketball player lost his life in the Southern Romania city of Giurgiu after a club fight. The athlete, Chauncey Hardy took a punch from a local after trying to dance with his girlfriend. He fell and hit his head which caused his death. The man who assaulted him was sentenced to seven years in jail, in 2014.

editor@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Cyclone Basketball on Twitter)