Louisiana Pediatrician Accused of Punching and Using N-Word While Verbally Assaulting Black Woman Student

A Louisiana pediatrician was arrested in Baton Rouge Wednesday and charged with punching and verbally assaulting a Black student-athlete at Southern University.

KATC 3 reports that 54-year-old Shane McKinney, a pediatrician at Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital in Baton Rouge, has been charged with simple battery after he was questioned by police about an alleged racially motivated attack on a 22-year-old Black woman near Louisiana State University.

From KATC:

McKinney’s LinkedIn profile describes him as a physician specializing in Pediatric Emergency Medicine Attending at OLOL Children’s Hospital. His name appears in search engines as a physician at Our Lady of the Lake, but the page has been removed from the hospital’s site.

According to the LinkedIn profile, McKinney has degrees from LSU, the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the Georgia Institute of Technology.

The student was punched in the chest and verbally assaulted, Baton Rouge Police told us yesterday. A spokesman confirmed last night that the n-word allegedly was used against the victim, who was identified as a Southern University student athlete by Southern’s athletic director last night.

After police released a photo of the man accused of assaulting her Tuesday afternoon, the agency received multiple tips about a particular individual whose name the department declined to release, The Advocate reports.

The victim’s name hasn’t been released, but NBC News reports that she is on Southern University’s track team and was walking along the lakes near the LSU campus Monday at about 6:55 p.m. when a man punched her in the chest and verbally assaulted her, according to Sgt. L’Jean McKneely Jr. of the Baton Rouge Police Department.

“The suspect quickly ran away from the area after the incident occurred,” McKneely said in a statement accompanied by a photo of McKinney, NBC reports.

Roman Banks, the athletic director at Southern University—a historically Black college—said in a statement that the school believes the attack was “racially motivated” and that school officials are “wholly and completely focused on on the safety and wellbeing of our student athletes.”

McKinney was released on his own recognizance from East Baton Rouge Parish Prison Wednesday, NBC reports.