San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Ricky Pearsall said he forgives the teenager who shot and wounded him and hopes to talk to the teen someday.
“I don’t know how he grew up so, I can’t judge him as a man just based off one action that he made,” the 24-year-old rookie told KNBR in a locker room interview posted on Monday. “As violent as a crime as it was, God forbid him doing that to somebody else.”
“I don’t ever want that to happen so … just being able to forgive him at the end of the day like, I have to be able to forgive him to have that weight off my chest,” he said.
Pearsall was shot in the chest during an attempted robbery in San Francisco in August. Police identified the suspect at the time as a 17-year-old boy.
San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said at an August news conference that the suspect approached Pearsall and tried to commit an armed robbery. There was a struggle and the “gunfire from the suspect’s gun struck Mr. Pearsall and the suspect,” Scott said.
The teen and Pearsall were hospitalized. District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said the teen would be charged in juvenile court.
Pearsall, who was drafted by the 49ers in the first round of the 2024 NFL draft, told KNBR that he would like to talk to the teen.
“At some point, I do want to talk to the kid and make sure that, if I can, create an impact on him in any way. I think that would be really big. I’d be definitely open to doing that,” he said.
