Mum at first, Chris Ash has broken his silence regarding a troubling situation that developed over the past several days involving one of his now-former Rutgers football players.
Rutgers linebacker Izaia Bullock was arrested Monday and charged with two counts of first-degree attempted murder and two counts of first-degree conspiracy to commit murder. It’s alleged that Bullock had formulated a plot in which he intended to murder two family members of an acquaintance, the names of whom have not been revealed.
A report that surfaced Tuesday indicated that the 22-year-old Bullock was upset after and his girlfriend ended a long-term relationship. He told the coaching staff of his struggles with the breakup, then made some unsettling comments, considered threatening to his ex’s family, to one of his teammates. The unidentified teammate passed the information on to an assistant football coach, who in turn passed it along to university officials before it ultimately ended up in the hands of law enforcement.
In his first public comments, Chris Ash stated he was “deeply saddened by the situation... but thankful no one was hurt.” The head coach also acknowledged that, "[o]ver the past two weeks, we witnessed changes in [Bullock’s] behavior.”
“We proactively addressed a very concerning issue that we were made aware of in recent days,” the head coach said in a lengthy statement. “The information that we received was passed through the appropriate channels to address the serious nature of the matter. As a result of our actions, the authorities became involved.”
Ash ended his statement by saying that "[w]e are grateful that the proper steps were followed and that all parties are safe.”
Bullock has a pretrial hearing scheduled for Friday. He’ll remain in jail through at least the end of the week