Georgia star RB Todd Gurley wrongfully accused of assault
Hours aftter running for 208 yards and two touchdowns in a win over Tennessee, Georgia star running back Todd Gurley was wrongly accused of assault early Sunday morning at an Athens, Ga., bar.
According to the Athens Banner-Herald, a 20-year-old male UGA student called police from his home at 3:18 a.m. “to report that he’d been punched by Gurley more than an hour earlier.” The accuser said Gurley attacked him “after he took a photograph of himself with Gurley in the background,” police said.
After police reviewed surveillance footage from the bar, it was determined that it was a white male who punched the accuser, not Gurley.
Gurley agreed to be interviewed by police after the accusation arose.
Gurley told a detective that the UGA student had been trying to take selfies with his cellphone as Gurley was in the background with friends from his hometown, according to police. Although Gurley said he did not see the student get punched, he did see some “other guys” pushing him. Gurley told the detective that the student had lost his hat. Gurley said he reached down to pick it up for him when the student approached and directed a racial epithet at Gurley, according to police.
At that point, surveillance footage shows the student, who admitted he was drinking that night, getting punched.
The police report further cleared Gurley of all involvement in the incident, “other than trying to give an individual his hat back.”
“In consideration of all the information, to include statements and video recordings from the incident location, Todd Gurley’s involvement in this report is unfounded,” the detective wrote in a supplemental report. “Based also on the information ... I was able to see clearly that Todd Gurley had no involvement in this case other than trying to give an individual his hat back."
Gurley, a 6-foot-1, 226-pound Heisman Trophy candidate, has 610 yards and six touchdowns on the ground in four games for the 3-1 Bulldogs. Georgia will host Vanderbilt Saturday afternoon.
For more Georgia news, visit UGASports.com.
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Sam Cooper is a contributor for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!
