Two University of Colorado wide receivers have been suspended for the team’s first two games of the season for their involvement in an incident with a pellet gun early Saturday, Coach Jon Embree said Tuesday.
Embree also said linebacker Jermane Clark is leaving the program due to a combination of family issues and his involvement in the incident.
Jeffrey Thomas and DaVaughn Thornton are suspended from playing against Colorado State and Sacramento State.
Ten Boulder police officers were called to respond when two cars containing eight CU football players were pulled over after witnesses thought the Airsoft pellet gun they were pointing at each other was a real gun.
According to a police report, CU football players Clark, 21, Thomas, 18, Thornton, 21, Jered Bell, 20, Keenan Canty, 19, Joshua Moten, 20, Paul Vigo, 22, and Derrick Webb, 20, were in the two cars. Paul Vigo’s brother Moses Vigo, 18, also was in one of the cars but is not a CU football player.
No arrests were made nor any tickets given, but Boulder police, according to the report, planned to raise concerns with CU’s athletic department about the athletes and the “impact their behavior had on police services throughout the entire city at the time of the incident.”
CU athletics officials confirmed the department was contacted by Boulder police about the incident and said Thornton, Clark and Thomas would be disciplined. The other players, CU officials said, “were just getting rides home.”
“It was three guys making poor decisions,” Embree said after Tuesday’s practice. “For the most part, our players, with an exception here or there, have done a great job of trying to be the type of citizens that we want and that we want our fans to be proud of.
“I know no charges were filed and any of that, but at the end of the day, we don’t behave that way. There is no gray area when you behave like those guys behaved. They’ve been punished appropriately.”
According to the police report, around 2 a.m. Saturday, police were waved down near Broadway and Pennsylvania Avenue by a woman who said she saw a passenger in a silver sedan pointing a gun at another car.
Police caught up to the two vehicles — a 1999 Audi A6 and a 2001 BMW X5, according to police records — near Broadway and Canyon Boulevard. The officers responding called for backup.
Police said several of the men in the cars became immediately antagonistic with officers as they were ordered out of the vehicles at gunpoint. Officers said Thornton told officers, “Go ahead! Shoot me, mother (expletive),” “I can go wherever the (expletive) I want,” and, “This is Boulder and you have your guns out?”
When the men were told about a report of a gun in the car, Clark told officers, “Yeah, but it’s a BB gun,” according to the report. Officers reported finding a black Airsoft pistol in the front seat that police said was labeled as and had the appearance of an authentic Walther P99, a semi-automatic pistol.
The men said they were just playing around with the gun and that they all knew each other. An officer disassembled the gun before returning it to Clark.
According to the report, all of the players were referred to CU’s student affairs office.
Embree said he first heard about the incident from some of the players involved on Sunday and met with some of them and their parents in his office. He dismissed any notion that the players involved are being held to unfair behavior standards because they are on the football team.
“I don’t care if I’m coaching the checkers team, if you’re on my team, there is a certain way we have to behave,” he said. “It’s a privilege to be on the team, and people are going to look up to you. You have kids looking up to you. So if you don’t think it’s fair, don’t be on the team.”
Embree also praised the Boulder Police Department and how officers handled the situation in light of recent events in Colorado and elsewhere.
“I do take this serious,” he said. “With all the events and all the things that have happened in the past, it’s just bad judgment. But we’ve got it handled.”
Canty, Moten, Thornton and Webb all played in games for CU last season.
Thornton, a junior wide receiver, appeared in all 13 games and recorded six catches for 69 yards, while Canty, a sophomore wide receiver, appeared in 12 games and caught 14 passes for 161 yards and also returned kicks.
Webb, a junior linebacker, appeared in all 13 games, while Moten, a sophomore defensive back, appeared in five and scored once on a fumble return.
Paul Vigo played in four games in 2010 — including a start at nickelback against Hawaii — but missed significant time due to injury and saw limited action in 2011 as a junior.
Bell, a sophomore defensive back, appeared in all 12 games in 2010 but suffered an ACL tear and missed all of 2011.
Thomas is listed as a freshman on the CU Buffs’ website, and Clark is a redshirt freshman.
