And now we know the rest of the story.
Just a short time ago, Texas A&M announced that linebacker Darian Claiborne and defensive lineman Isaiah Golden had been dismissed from the football program. No specific reason was given, although each had an off-field incident -- or two in Claiborne’s case -- over the past several months.
As it turns out, those off-field issues stretched late into the month of May as well.
According to Brent Zwerneman of the San Antonio Express-News, both Claiborne and Golden were arrested June 3 and charged with aggravated robbery. The charges stem from an alleged drug deal gone bad late last month.
From Zwerneman’s Twitter account, which contained a College Station Police Department report on the incident:“On this date, as part of the ongoing investigation, Detectives with the College Station Police Department were able to obtain arrest warrants for two suspects in this offense. Their investigation into this incident revealed the following information.
“On May 23, 2014 at approximately 2255 hrs, officers with the College Station Police Department were dispatched to the 2000 blk of Holleman Drive W in regards to a report of an aggravated robbery that had just occurred. Upon arrival officers met with two victims, a 20 year old male and a 22 year old male, and learned that the reported robbery had actually occurred a short distance away at their apartment in the 1100 blk of Jones Butler Road. They further stated that a third victim, a 20 year old male, was at that apartment and that he had been struck in the head during the robbery by one of the suspects. Officers responded to the apartment, located the third victim, and found him to have suffered minor injuries as a result of being struck.
“Investigation at the scene found that the three victims had entered into an agreement to purchase a quantity of marijuana from the suspects. When the suspects arrived at the apartment to complete the transaction, one of the suspects produced a handgun, pointed it at one of the victims while the other suspect took the money that was present to purchase the marijuana. While this was occurring, one of the victims stood up from the couch and was struck in the face by the suspect with the handgun. The suspects then fled the area on foot and the victims notified police.
“The investigation into the aggravated robbery continued by the Criminal Investigations Division and the suspects were able to be identified. Through the continued investigation, detectives were able to obtain warrants charging the two suspects for this offense on June 3, 2014.”In other words, head coach Kevin Sumlin had no choice to part ways with a pair of players who were expected to be starters in 2014.