A popular Massachusetts football player has been charged with assault in connection with an incident in which he struck a fellow athlete with a belt in the locker room.
As reported by the Mansfield News, Mansfield (Ma.) High junior Alex Ruddy was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon following an investigation that found the football star had struck a fellow student with a belt during school hours.
According to the News, the attack came at the end of a gym class in the boys locker room, where Ruddy attacked the other student after a verbal spat between the two.
Rather, the entire scary incident was apparently stopped by the dramatic intervention of other teens in the locker room, as Mansfield Police Chief Arthur O’Neil told the Boston Herald.
BLOCK: “There were other young men in the room that stopped it,” said O’Neill, who called their bravery “terrific.” …
“There was some back and forth between the two of them and the older boy hit the younger boy’s ankles and lower legs with a belt,” O’Neill said. “It’s a shame — just a moment of terrible bad judgment. He just didn’t use his head.”
Regardless, the alleged attack was enough to justify Ruddy’s arraignment at Attelboro District Court. The teen was released shortly after he was charged and will face trial on the charges in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, the entire sordid affair has cast a pall over Ruddy’s previous bright future with the Mansfield football program, following a season in which the squad reached the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association Division . The rising senior was selected to be a captain of the 2013 team and was expected to lead out the Hornets throughout the fall season.
Now, the more essential question is whether he’ll even be allowed to pad up with his teammates himself.
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