Originally posted by GatorTheo:
'Childish antics' like theft and vandalism? Winston is a punk. A great athlete but a punk. Everyone understands that except Nole fans. Being a punk doesn't mean he raped that girl but it durn sure doesn't rule it out either.
Okay, let's assume for a moment that Winston is this villainous punk you described...what exactly do you know of the incident? Why is he being singled out as the "lone gunman?"
FACT 1:
On November 27, 2012, just two days after being stopped by FSU Police on the bike trail near Florida State's campus, Tallahassee Police Department (TPD) officers were called out to the Legacy Suites apartments after the manager claimed 13 windows had been damaged by players in a gun battle two days earlier (hours after the bike trail incident) causing $4,200 in damages.
FACT 2:
Winston was not the only individual implicated and has yet to actually be identified as firing or even holding a BB gun. In fact, in this incident, a large percentage of the entire team was involved, yet you only hear about Winston.
According to the property manager, on the night in question he recognized Jameis Winston, Chris Casher, PJ Williams and Mario Edwards Jr involved in a "battle" which caused property damage. The property manager, Dave Sudekum, planned to evict all four players.
FACT 3:
Winston denied having a BB gun during the incident at the apartment while Casher admitted to having one, but claimed he never fired any shots because he did not have a carbon dioxide cartridge. They claim they were attacked themselves by individuals throwing eggs at their window and were shot at with a paintball gun. They do claim they were a part of the "battles" which took place over the course of a month that involved several other players.
FACT 4:
Police found BB's on the ground and witnessed several windows from multiple apartments damaged. There was another battle at another complex by players you have probably never heard about (you decide why) Odds are pretty good, that group who caused damage to individuals, windows, cars and other property at another complex attack, likely did most of the damage at Winston's complex as well, just using common sense.
In the end, 13 players (which would make up over 15% of the scholarship team) were held responsible. Because the manager at Legacy Suites threatened to evict the four players he claimed to have witnessed causing trouble, the entire group of 13 agreed to split the damages between them, coming to about $320 for each. After this, the case was dropped and no charges were filed.
Most reasonable folks would not imagine for one second so many players on one team, particularly such young players at the time and on such a high profile team, all just conveniently had pellet guns.
From reading the reports and using common sense, likely a pellet gun(s), paintball gun(s), eggs and maybe even airsoft guns or something else were used in these battles. Regardless, it was clearly not just Winston with just a single BB gun and likely another case of him just trying to be "one of the guys" as Charlie Ward described him.
I'm so glad the media wasn't following me around my Junior year when we ran out of eggs and my buddy threw a beer bottle that hit the side of the house. Fortunately, when the owner jumped in his truck and came after us, he was unable to catch us. Whew. Could you imagine?
This post was edited on 2/22 10:09 PM by alaskanseminole
