A confrontation in a University of Arizona residence hall this week has resulted in the arrest of a football player on suspicion of domestic violence.
Freshman safety Scottie Young Jr. was arrested by campus police on suspicion of one count of domestic violence assault shortly after midnight Wednesday after a student in the Likins Residence Hall reported that she’d seen another student get “pushed into a wall, spit on and threatened by (Young) according a campus police incident report.
Young told officers who went to his dorm room that his girlfriend had come to his room shortly after 10 p.m. the night before, the report says. The two began to argue, got in each other’s faces and exchanged words like, ‘I (expletive) hate you,’” Young told police.
Young said that the woman pointed her finger very close to his face, after which he “grabbed her two wrists for a few seconds and threw them down to her side” because he thought she was going to hit him, according to the report. Young told the officers that he told her to leave and she did.
The couple had dated on-and-off since high school and had been in a committed relationship for the past year, Young told police.
The woman, however, told police she went to Young’s room to pick up her laptop at about 11:40 p.m., the report says. Young answered the door, closed it, and returned with her laptop, which he threw at her after he opened the door, according to the report.
He later confronted her outside of the room, calling her a tramp and saying that he wished she was dead, the report says.
The woman told police Young took her backpack and threw it towards the elevator, during which she took the opportunity to try to knock on the resident advisor’s door. Before she could do so, Young grabbed her left hand to pull it away from the door and spit in her face. Police confirmed that her hand was “slightly swollen” and photographed her injuries after calling for UA paramedics, the report says.
The woman told police that this wasn’t the first time Young had “put his hands on her,” saying he slapped her in the face several times during an argument a few days prior, according to the report. The Star does not usually identify alleged victims of domestic violence.
Police interviewed other witnesses who confirmed the woman’s story, saying that at one point, she saw other students in the residence hall had to hold him back when he came after the victim after saying he hoped she would die, the report says.
One witness told police that she knew the couple and that the victim had previously told her that Young “hit, choked and slammed her,” according to the report.
Police re-interviewed Young to address the inconsistencies in the two stories and after first denying it, he admitted to grabbing his girlfriend’s wrist and spitting on her, the report says.
He told police that during the argument a few days before, his girlfriend attempted to slap him a number of times and at one point, “slightly” scratched his cheek, throat and bottom lip. Young went on to say that the scratches were more like “light scrapes” that quickly faded and denied she actually slapped him, according to the report.
Young was arrested and booked into the Pima County jail on one misdemeanor charge of domestic violence assault with minor injury. He’s scheduled for arraignment in front of Judge Adam Watters on Oct. 11.
The woman also was arrested and is facing a charge of domestic violence assault with no injury.
