Suspended Rutgers Football Player Charged With Simple Assault

The Rutgers football player who was suspended from the team this weekend has been charged with simple assault, authorities said.

Leonte Carroo, 21, of Edison, “was arrested by the Rutgers University Police Department (RUPD) and charged with simple assault under domestic violence related to an incident that occurred outside the Hale Center in Piscataway on September 12, 2015,” according to a statement from Rutgers Police Chief Kenneth Cop.

In the statement, the chief said the Rutgers University Police Department’s investigation was ongoing and anyone with information about the case could call the RUPD Investigations Unit at 848-932-8025.

Simple assault is a disorderly persons offense that is generally heard in municipal court.

NJ.com reports that authorities are investigating an altercation that involved two females, including one who was an acquaintance of Carroo.

On Sunday, Rutgers football coach Kyle Flood announced that Carroo had been suspended from the team indefinitely, as a result of an incident Saturday night.

Carroo is the seventh football player charged in recent weeks, but the charge he faces is far less serious than the other six players, who have been dismissed from the team.

Two of those players are facing robbery charges in connection with a home invasion, while the other four are facing aggravated assault and riot charges in a case that authorities have described as an unproved attack on a group of people on a New Brunswick street. Those charges are indictable offenses that are generally heard in state Superior Court.