A Colin County jury awarded a Texas teen $3.2 million in damages as he was falsely accused of racial bullying. According to the jury, the teen, Asher Vann, went through emotional distress due to the false allegations.
In 2021, a 13-year-old black student named SeMarion Humphrey claimed his white friend – Vann – shot him with a BB gun and forced him to drink urine during a sleepover.
The news went viral, considering the grave nature of racial bullying, and Vann was targeted by the Black Lives Matter (BLM) group. Vann was not charged; however, he filed a civil suit against Humphrey’s mother, Summer Smith. After the investigation, it was concluded that no racial hate crime took place.
Following the accusation, Vann received death threats, and several people demonstrated outside his home. It took five years for him to get justice.
Last month, a Texas district court judge in Collin County, in suburban Dallas, ordered the “victim’s” mother, Summer Smith, and her attorney, Kim Cole, to pay $3.2 million in damages to the white student they accused of bullying. A racially diverse jury ruled that they cooked up… pic.twitter.com/HyDHWhyT4M
— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) February 2, 2026
Meanwhile, Smith used the situation to set up a GoFundMe for her son, collecting $120,000. Investigators said that the money was not primarily used for her son’s education. Jurors concluded that Smith fabricated the charges and used the BLM movement for her benefit.
Vann is in college now and explained the events that unfolded that day. He and his friends were hunting with BB guns and shooting at each other as part of a Nerf war, which uses soft foam darts. They had decided that the first person to fall asleep would get pranked.
Vann stated that it wasn’t a racial torture as was portrayed. Humphrey laughed off the incident at first, but after two weeks, the video of the incident was posted and went viral. Smith saw the video and demanded that Vann be expelled. She also involved the media, giving interviews about the incident on news channels.
Vann and his father claimed they wanted to tell their version of the story, but not through the media. Hence, they chose to file a civil suit. The multiracial jury found Smith and her son had intentionally caused distress to Vann with a false story.
NEW: A jury awarded Texas teen Asher Vann, now 19, $3.2M after ruling he was falsely accused at 14 of race-based bullying in 2021.
A Collin County jury found the accuser and her attorney liable for emotional distress and invasion of privacy. pic.twitter.com/pg0ThEWsb6
— Brandon Straka #WalkAway (@BrandonStraka) February 17, 2026
Netizens responded to the news of Vann receiving millions in damages. Some called it unreasonable, while some blamed Smith for playing the race card. One user wrote, “No shocker that a black woman, Summer Smith, played the race card to scam tons of money and sympathy for a bunch of lies! She should face jail time for the amount of money she scammed from others. Shameful!”
Another user sympathized with Vann, ” The father did the right thing, this got the real story out. I feel sorry for all the boys. False allegations should be a criminal offense.” A third user commented, “He was awarded 3.2 million, but I have a feeling he’ll be lucky to get 1,000 dollars from that family.” One person stated, “It’s great to see real justice prevail over a tone deaf left wing rhetoric seeking to play the victim.”
