Maybe Dad is trying to convey the message that Deionte was with these other guys before this took place and witnesses tagged him in as participating simply because he plays at BAMA. Sort of a guilty by association tag!!
As far as the assault goes, 3 on 1 or 4 on 1 as the story and warrants suggest, you have A LOT of misguided youth out there these days. They read on social media all of these "injustices" that only has one side and they take it as their own injustice. I live in Sylacauga and back in the fall, we had something very similar take place homecoming week at the HS. One of the days was "America Day" and one of the HS teachers supposedly had her daughter and several others to come to school in solid black t shirts and then proceed to "fix" them with BLM slogans. These girls then went into the lunchroom and were confronted by several students that said, " All lives matter regardless of color. We are all children of God!" The girls immediately started raising all kinds of hell, yelling and cursing. The boy was called to the office and was told to keep his mouth shut or be suspended. Another boy posted to Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram some comments regarding the incident. He also included some "Blue Lives Matter" comments etc. That Friday night following the game, most all of these kids were out at our Sonic, shooting the breeze and talking about the big win. A group of 4 black males, all at least a year removed from our HS, approached the one who had made the posts and began beating the **** out of him. Two pulled weapons when some other kids tried to jump in and break it up. They nearly beat this kid to death!! I taught all of those involved when they came through my school!! We made national news because of the incident. There was a supposed "hit list" as well, with 1 or 2 attempted beatings occurring at the HS. The incident was really something atypical for this city of 15,000. These kids have grown up together, in the same daycares, schools, churches, interracial marriages/families, etc. These 4 that took it upon themselves to gain "justice" allowed themselves to be persuaded by events outside of them, Missouri, Baltimore, New York, Louisiana, Dallas, etc.
To this day, the 4 have been charged with aggravated assault and battery. The victim finally returned to school about 3 months ago after spending 2 months in the hospital. Nothing was done to the teacher and 4-5 girls for making and wearing the shirts. My freshman aged son was told to turn his shirt inside out an wear a hoodie because he wore a "Clinton killed Harambe" t shirt!! WTH?