Police investigate incident involving ISU athletes

POCATELLO, Idaho – Several Idaho State University athletes are under investigation for assault and the firing of three bullets into an empty car belonging to a football player, Pocatello police said Monday.

The alleged assault occurred at a party celebrating ISU’s 37-0 win Saturday over Montana-Western.

Three or four Bengals football players allegedly began hitting and kicking ISU basketball players and threatening to throw them off a 15-foot-high porch, police Capt. Kirk Nelson told the Idaho State Journal. Hours later, a football player’s car was hit by three rounds from a handgun in an apparent drive-by shooting.

Police have not definitively linked the two incidents.

Nelson said it appears the basketball players did little to provoke the attack, in which they suffered only cuts and bruises.

“I think (some football players) came looking for trouble,” Nelson said. “It’s gone way too far. With guns involved, somebody’s going to get seriously hurt or killed.”

While police were investigating the assault, someone fired three bullets into a parked car owned by one of the football players, police said.

Detectives are also investigating a possible connection between the weekend incidents and an alleged sexual assault last week, Nelson said.

One of the football player’s girl-friends told police Sept. 15 that someone she believed to be an ISU basketball player had sexually assaulted her the week before, Nelson said. After looking into the claim, police concluded the man was neither a basketball player nor an ISU student. Police have not been able to locate him for questioning.

ISU athletic director Paul Bubb said the students involved in the Saturday night fracas may face disciplinary action, including suspension or dismissal.

Idaho State plays host to Eastern Washington in a Big Sky Conference football opener Saturday.