Just a month after winning NCAA football's national championship game, four members of the University of Alabama's team have been arrested after a pair of campus robberies.
All of the accused are freshmen. Three of the players, including defensive lineman Dennis "D.J." Pettway, linebacker Tyler Hayes and running back Brent Calloway appeared in 13 games last season. The fourth player invovled was defensive back Eddie Williams who did not play, The Crimson White campus newspaper reported on Monday.
The police report indicated that Pettway, Hayes and Williams punched and kicked a student shortly after midnight on Monday, leaving the male student unconscious.
The student's backpack with an Apple Macbook Pro was also stolen, police said. Williams, reportedly, beat up another student, an hour later, and took his wallet, as Hayes and Pettway waited in a vehicle, police said, as reported by WTVM. Williams and Calloway used the second victim's debit card to buy snacks from a vending machine, police said. The football program suspended all four players indefinitely.
"The University and football program have strict guidelines regarding issues of this magnitude," Alabama head football coach Nick Saban said in a public statement. "This behavior is unacceptable for any student-athlete at the University of Alabama and not representative of our football program."
A university spokesman said that police charged Williams, Pettway and Hayes with robbery. Williams was also charged with using a debit card fraudulently, as was Calloway, the spokeswoman said. All four teammates were booked into Tuscaloosa County Jail and posted bond on Tuesday, WTVM said.
A trial date has yet to be announced
