Former NBA player Rasual Butler and wife die in car crash

**pwaldo** · 01-31-2018, 10:36 PM

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/2...dies-car-crash

Former NBA player Rasual Butler was killed in a single-vehicle crash in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles, early Wednesday morning, the L.A. County coroner's office confirmed to ESPN. He was 38.

Butler's 31-year-old wife, Leah LaBelle Vladowski, also died in the crash, the coroner confirmed. The R&B singer was a finalist in Season 3 of "American Idol" in 2004. The couple was pronounced dead at the scene at 2:35 a.m. after his Range Rover struck parking meters and a wall and rolled into a parking lot, the coroner's office said.

**WilyWestbrook0** · 02-01-2018, 01:38 AM

Very sad to hear.

Appalled at some of the comments I'm seeing from people on social media, though. It does sound like Butler was speeding, and there may or may not have been substances involved, but that doesn't mean it's okay to be completely classless. From everything I ever read or heard about him, he seemed to be one of the nicer guys in the league. He probably made a couple of very bad decisions, but who hasn't? Just so happened that he and his wife tragically died as a result.