UNA Students Concerned About Campus Safety Again After Recent Attack

FLORENCE, Ala. (WHNT) – Two University of North Alabama football players are suspended indefinitely from the team, following rape allegations.

A third man is also behind bars in connection with this case.

Campus police believe the rape happened inside Rivers hall, Saturday evening.

According to investigators, the victim was invited into freshman football player, DeAndre Harrison’s dorm room in Rivers Hall.

However university police chief Bob Pastula says the student did not agree to have sexual intercourse with Harrison, or the other men in the room.

Lions football lineback, Eddrick Harris is also charged with rape, along with D’Anthony Byrd, who is not a student at the university.

Police say there could still be more arrests.

“The investigation is still ongoing so we`re still trying to straighten out the facts and figures.  Best we can tell.  This occurred sometime Saturday evening around 9 pm,” said Chief Pastula.

However, detectives weren’t notified about the crime until Sunday morning when they got a call from Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital in Florence.

Since then, Chief Pastula says his investigators have spent hours tracking down leads and interviewing witnesses.  “We have several stories, there was anywhere from three to six or 7 or 8 people that were involved.”

For some students at UNA, the prevalence of crime on campus seems to be getting worse.

Kelsey Wyatt is a freshman at the university and says she knows both the victim and suspects in this case.  “When I found out it was on campus, it just makes me not want to come here.  I love UNA but the crime is getting worse, and rape?   I mean, that`s awful.”

According to investigators, friends took the victim to get medical help, after the attack.

In a statement from UNA athletics, the athletic director says the department has fully cooperated with police during this investigation, and will continue to do so, until the resolution of this case.