A&M-Commerce football recruit arrested

A man who identified himself as an A&M-Commerce football recruit was arrested for Possession of Alcohol by a Minor on Jan. 21 at Prairie Crossing apartments.

The arrest occurred after University Police Department Officer C. Ballard responded to complaints of noise and the smell of marijuana coming from apartment 407. Before Ballard reached the door of the apartment, a man holding a beer exited the apartment. That man was later identified as 18-year-old Blake Turner, who "had bloodshot eyes and the smell of an alcoholic beverage coming from his person," according to the police report.

Upon seeing the officer, the report said that Turner turned to go back inside the apartment, but was grabbed by his jacket back outside by Ballard. The officer then made contact with the apartment resident, who escorted Ballard through the apartment to show there was no alcohol or marijuana present.

The resident did say some of the guests had smoked marijuana, and this was to blame for the smell in the area. Other than the one beer held by Turner, Ballard did not see any other alcohol present.

According to the report, the officer could not identify all subjects on the scene, but "the majority were members of the Texas A&M-Commerce football team."

"It is unfortunate this did happen," A&M-Commerce Athletic Director Carlton Cooper said. "It's not something we condone, but I don't have all the facts, so I don't feel I can comment on this any further. I have looked into it enough to know our football players were present, but I have not been told the majority were football players."

This incident is similar to one that occurred in January last year, in which a high school football recruit had to be hospitalized because of potential drug and alcohol use while on a campus visit.

Cooper said that since that incident, measures have been put in place to help reduce the risk of it happening again.

"We sit down and go over all the dos and don'ts with our sponsor players, and that came out of the incident last year," he said. "Things do happen."

According to the police report, Turner "was not able to provide which football player was sponsoring him."