Aaron Donald accused of assault, Rams are “gathering information” about incident

On Wednesday morning, attorney Todd Hollis told the media that he will be filing assault charges against LA Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald on behalf of a client who says that he was “beat” by Donald last weekend.

Hollis provided a photo of the accuser, DeVincent Spriggs, that appears to show a man with a severely swollen right eye and wearing a sling for a cast.

KDKA-TV provided the following information about the alleged assault on their website:

Hollis said Donald allegedly beat Spriggs, who was later treated and released at a local hospital. He is asking police here to conduct a full investigation of the incident.

Hollis identified Spriggs as an out-of-towner, but declined to say from where.

Spriggs, who has his arm in a sling, a puffed upright eye and visible stitches, had little to say.

KDKA’s Andy Sheehan: “Were you assaulted, sir?”

Spriggs: “Yes, I was.”

Sheehan: “Was this unprovoked?”

Hollis: “It was definitely unprovoked. I’ve instructed him not to make any comments, but, as you can see from his arm in a sling, his eye is closed, 16 stitches in his eye and a concussion and other severe injuries he’s suffered, this is a severe incident.”

The incident is alleged to have happened in Pittsburgh — where Donald was born and played in college at Pitt — in the overnight hours between Saturday, April 10 and April 11.

According to the report, charges have already been filed with the Pittsburgh Police in Arlington.

Comments will be closed for this topic.

Update: According to KDKA’s Melinda Roeder, Spriggs says that he bumped into Donald and others, which is when Donald “began punching him.” Spriggs is said to have suffered a concussion, arm injury, broken arm, and 16 stitches to his eye area. Spriggs says he was not aware the person was Donald until later. The alleged incident took place at the Boom Boom Room around 3:00 AM on Sunday.

Update 2: Per the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Donald and Spriggs were asked to leave the Boom Boom Room (which does not appear to be an official business in the city, according to the Post-Gazette) and it was outside of the club that the alleged assault happened.

While outside, Mr. Donald confronted Mr. Spriggs and began punching him, Mr. Hollis said.

“Regardless of what may have happened in the nightclub, it doesn’t justify this,” Mr. Hollis said.

Mr. Hollis said no weapons were used in the alleged altercation.

Attempts by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to contact Mr. Donald were not immediately successful.

Pittsburgh police did confirm that they spoke to a man about an assault on Sunday morning, but did not say if it was Spriggs or if Donald was the accused, as per police policy.

“The male told police it happened in a bar somewhere on the South Side,” police spokeswoman Cara Cruz wrote in the statement. “He did not know the exact location or time of day it occurred. He told police he accidentally bumped into another male at the bar who confronted him verbally.

“He says that male and another ended up punching and kicking him. The complainant admits to throwing a bottle of alcohol, but didn’t know if he had hit anyone.”

The Allegheny County District Attorney has reportedly not yet determined if charges will be filed against the accused in the above incident, which again, has not been confirmed to be Donald. As to the LA Rams, they have no comments on the situation until further notice.

“We are collecting more information and will have no further comment at this time,” the Rams statement said.

Donald posted a picture of himself working out on his Instagram two days after the alleged incident with the hashtags #work #ready and #ad99, so he seemed to be carrying on business as usual this week, for whatever that is worth.