Rutgers' Leonte Carroo charged with simple assault in domestic violence incident

Rutgers released a statement into the matter regarding wide receiver Leonte Carroo. Watch video

PISCATAWAY -- Leonte Carroo was arrested by the Rutgers University Police Department on Saturday and charged with simple assault in a domestic violence incident that occurred outside the Hale Center on Saturday, according to RU police chief Kenneth Cop.

Rutgers police said the investigation is on-going and encouraged anyone with information to the RUPD Investigations Unit at 848-932-8025.

Rutgers police arrived on the scene at the Rutgers football headquarters at 7:56 p.m., according to the RUPD daily crime log. That was 48 minutes after the Scarlet Knights lost a 37-34 decision to Washington State on Saturday night.

Carroo declined comment Monday morning. When reached on his cell phone by a NJ Advance Media reporter, Carroo, 21, said he couldn't make any comments on the situation.

Shortly after Rutgers coach Kyle Flood suspended his star wide receiver, NJ Advance Media first reported Sunday that authorities were investigating an altercation that happened outside the Rutgers football team's headquarters on Saturday evening involving a female acquaintance of Carroo and another female, according to two people familiar with the situation.

Carroo is the seventh Rutgers player arrested since Sept. 3. Six other players have been kicked off the team in the past two weeks as the result of arrests. Two players, cornerback Dre Boggs and fullback Lloyd Terry, have been charged in home invasions. The other four players -- cornerback Nadir Barnwell, cornerback Ruhann Peele, safety Delon Stephenson and fullback Razohnn Gross -- face assault charges.

Although he is suspended from the program indefinitely, Carroo's academic status as a student has not changed, according to a university spokesman. After the arrest of seven students, including five players who were then on the football team, Rutgers announced that they were placed on interim suspension from the university.

Carroo was also one of five players suspended for the first half of the season opener for violating curfew.

A spokesman for Rutgers coach Kyle Flood didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Flood after news surfaced of Carroo's arrest.

Citing an ongoing investigation, Flood has deferred questions about the incident to the authorities.

Pressed on whether an athletic-department employee was involved in the incident outside the stadium, Flood said he couldn't comment "on any of the details of the incident that happened.''

Flood said he doesn't anticipate lifting Carroo's suspension before Saturday's 8 p.m. kickoff at Penn State. He declined to address whether Carroo could ultimately be dismissed from his program.

"I don't anticipate any change in status as of right now,'' Flood said, "and it would be hard for me to answer the (question about Carroo's dismissal) until I had more details just because it's a hypothetical right now.''

Keith Sargeant may be reached at ksargeant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @KSargeantNJ. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.