Ole Miss signee Chad Kelly arrested after alleged police scuffle
Less than a week after signing with Ole Miss, Chad Kelly is back in the news for all the wrong reasons.
Kelly, the former Clemson quarterback who won a junior college national championship at East Mississippi Community College this season, was arrested early Sunday morning in Buffalo and is facing an array of charges. According to the Buffalo News, Kelly’s charges include “third-degree assault, second-degree harassment, second-degree menacing, resisting arrest, fourth-degree criminal mischief and second-degree obstructing governmental administration.” All charges are misdemeanors or violations.
The charges came after the 20-year-old Kelly refused to leave a Buffalo, N.Y. bar at around 3:15 a.m. Kelly's friend was thrown out of the same bar earlier and "tried to re-enter," police said. According to a police report, Kelly fought with two bouncers and punched one in the face, and then told the bouncers, “I’m going to go to my car and get my AK-47 and spray this place.”
In response to that threat, Buffalo police pulled over a vehicle in which Kelly was a passenger. Kelly then fought with police.
Per the Buffalo News:
Kelly was forcibly removed from the vehicle, officers said. Police said Kelly kicked and tried to swing at officers as they removed him from the vehicle. They said he resisted getting into a patrol vehicle and struggled with staff at central booking.
Kelly was arraigned in Buffalo court and later released without bail on Sunday.
Kelly, the nephew of great Buffalo Bills quarterback Jim Kelly, signed a scholarship to play at Ole Miss on Wednesday after a season at East Mississippi Community College. Kelly transferred to EMCC after being dismissed by Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney in April for “conduct detrimental to the program” and having a “pattern of behavior that is not consistent with the values of (Clemson’s) program.”
Kelly threw for 3,905 yards and 47 touchdowns at EMCC this season and was expected to compete for the starting role with the Rebels in 2015.
"We followed Chad throughout the year and we were very, very impressed with the job he did running the offense for East,” Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze said last week. “Probably toward end of year, once I had some face-to-face conversations with him, he came to a couple games and then the official visit, and I did my home visit with he and his family after their championship game, and I was convinced he was the guy we wanted to go on.”
In response to the news, Freeze said on Sunday night that the program is "gathering facts on the matter."
For more Ole Miss news, visit RebelGrove.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!
