Kutztown University, KU, has suspended four football players for violating athletic department policy. The suspension was in connection to an altercation at a Bloomsburg University fraternity that left two people wounded and another one critically injured.
Out of the suspended players, 20-year-old players Angel Shakiel Cruz of Robesonia, and Justin S. Wieder of Quakertown were arrested on felony aggravated assault and offenses related to the incident.
Cruz is also charged with a misdemeanor simple assault for beating another University student and misdemeanor charges of unruly conduct and defiant trespass. Currently, the player remains in Columbia County Prison with a bond amount set at $150,000. A preliminary hearing has been scheduled March 10 with Magisterial District Judge Russell L. Lawton.
The suspended students who are not criminally charged include 20-year-old starting defensive end Eric T. Condron, of Philadelphia, and 18-year-old Jake B. Wygant, of Whitehall Township, Lehigh County, one of the team's starters on the defensive line.
Police and the university officials said that the fight broke out when the players gate-crashed a closed fraternity party near the Bloomsburg campus Feb. 23 and refused to go away.
According to the affidavit, the brawl turned deadly when KU linebacker left a Bloomsburg student unconscious with a single blow, Goerie reports. The tussle continued to the street outside the house.
According to court records, when Bloomsburg student Jackie Lithgow, 19, attempted to settle the matters by asking the players to leave, Cruz hit him in the head and knocked him to the street, where he struck his head on the pavement.
Lithgow of Carlisle was immediately taken to Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Montour County for a fractured skull, bruised frontal lobe and brain hemorrhage. He remains in coma and critical condition.
Three other Bloomsburg students were treated for concussions and other injuries.
According to court documents, the 19-year-old Donald Hoover, of Robesonia suffered a ruptured left eardrum, an abrasion on his left shoulder, a fractured bone behind his left ear, a strain/dislocation of the left shoulder and a swollen and bloody lip. According to charging documents, Hoover is still unable to hear out of his left ear, The Sentinel reports.
"This is clearly behavior that we will not tolerate, and is in no way representative of our student body," Kutztown officials said, The Morning Call reports.
