A college football player allegedly assaulted in the locker room by his own teammate was hospitalized with a brain bleed, concussion and other injuries, it has emerged.
TCU wide receiver Dozie Ezukanma spent three days in hospital recovering after allegedly being punched by then-teammate Jacob Fields, a signed arrest warrant affidavit reveals.
Fields, a safety who transferred to TCU from Louisiana Tech this offseason, has been charged with aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury, according to police records obtained by the Daily Mail.
Fields has been accused of striking Ezukanma in a locker room fight on August 13. He was dismissed from the team for a violation of team rules days later, then turned himself in to Tarrant County, Texas police on Sunday morning, per court records.
According to an affidavit, Fields punched and kicked his then-teammate in the head inside the Walsh Athletic Complex. The document says he lost consciousness and only remembers being in the training room, where teammates told him what happened.
He is said to have told TCU’s athletic trainer and team doctor he had a severe headache and ringing ears before a subsequent hospital trip confirmed a brain bleed after two CT scans. A third scan showed he was stable but he remained in hospital until August 16.
Dozie Ezukanma was left in hospital after an alleged assault by a teammate in the locker room
Jacob Fields has since been kicked off the TCU team after the incident and his arrest
Fields transfered to TCU this offseason after previously playing at Louisiana Tech
The arrest warrant affidavit says a teammate told TCU’s athletic trainer: ‘Dozie wasn’t paying attention. [Fields] just hit him’.
Ezukanma told TCU police he believed he was assaulted by Fields because he had outperformed him in practice on August 12.
The document says Ezukanma provided a text message attributed to Fields saying he regretted his actions and ‘made an emotional decision cause how I felt played the last few practices’ as well as offering to ‘pay every hospital bill and then some to make this right.’
After losing to North Carolina in Saturday’s season-opener in Ireland, coach Sonny Dykes said: ‘It was something that was certainly out of character for the team and the young man that was involved. Look, you got 110 football players. I mean, things happen sometimes.’
After Fields turned himself in, his agent, Philip Miller, said in a statement: ‘I understand the media and public may be looking for an explosive statement from Jacob or me. Now is not the time or the place.
‘We will not try this case through social media or the court of public opinion. There is a proper place for the facts to be heard, and we will respect that process.
‘My athletes and I understand the difference between right and wrong. We believe in drawing a hard line, standing up for yourself, and standing for something – because if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything. I stand with Jacob, and I will not waver.’
