Bearcats Alex Thomas Arrested, Hosey Williams Cited To Appear In Court After Incident

Here is what we know for sure took place. There were Bearcats football players at a party on Lyon St. just south of campus. At said party there was an altercation between a guess and someone who came in off the street. Those two people had a disagreement, took that disagreement out onto the street where the following happened.

"I guess someone walked in from the streets and was talking smack to one of the people inside the party. They walked outside, he pointed the gun to his chest, then shot twice up in the air and ran off."

That is according to Eric Toepfer, the only named witness in WCPO's reporting.

It can not be stressed enough that neither the person being threatened, nor the person who fired the shots were UC football players. There were UC players at the party, but neither the protagonist or the antagonist were members of the team.

Additionally there is something that readers who find this who did not attend UC, or have never been to an off campus gathering in Clifton have to understand. People wandering off the street into parties uninvited happens all the time each and every weekend. That is something that happens more often in the summer than the winter, but this isn't a weird thing to happen. The vast majority of the time nothing really happens in that situation. What is weird is that a verbal altercation started immediately, that said altercation moved into the street and resulted in gunshots being fired into the air.

After the shots were fired all hell broke loose, understandable. Everyone ran and scattered as the police arrived on the scene. It was in the chaos following the shots that several people including Alex Thomas were arrested and Hosey Williams and others earned their court appearances. One at a time.

Alex Thomas was arrested for obstructing official business. As far as I can tell his main crime was running from the police in the chaos after the shots, and continuing to run after they told him to stop. Which, you know, wasn't the smartest thing in the world to do. But in Thomas's defense he is 18 and very far from home in a strange town*. A severe lack of judgement there is not altogether surprising.

* I love everything about Cincinnati, but even locals have to admit that it seems really weird to someone who is not from Cincinnati and doesn't know just how inclusive everything is.

Hosey Williams meanwhile is cited for being drunk and disorderly, which you know, it is a party and he is of age so that explains the first part. According to the Enquirer the disorderly part comes from Hosey refusing to tell the police where he attends school. Literally a block away from campus, on a street that is overwhelmingly populated by students. Pretty daft.

As of this moment Hosey Williams and Alex Thomas are still on the team, and are expected to face at the very least suspensions when the legal end of this is concluded. Tommy Tuberville released this statement about the incident last night.

"We have high expectations for the conduct and behavior of every member of our football program at all times. Being a student-athlete at the University of Cincinnati is a privilege, not a right, and there are consequences for their actions. I'm disappointed and we are still gathering information surrounding the depth of involvement in the incident."