UTM football player accused of assaulting officers during bar brawl
MARTIN, Tenn. — Police arrested a UT Martin football player this weekend after officers tried to break up an early morning fight outside a bar.
Kevin Prather Jr.
“We’re unsure what the fight was about, but there was a fight that started inside the bar and it carried out into the parking lot,” Martin Police Chief Don Teal said.
Kevin Prather Jr. is charged with assault, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct after the Sunday morning incident outside The Slide and Ride Saloon on North Lindell Street, according to a report from the Martin Police Department.
When officers responded to a fight in the parking lot, they told Prather multiple times to stop as he tried to hit several people, according to the report.
Police say Prather shoved an officer away before he grabbed another officer by the uniform and threw the officer into a wooden fence.
Police say when Prather threw the officer into the fence he broke the officer’s Digital Ally body camera, which is valued at about $750. The Digital Ally body mic to the car was also damaged while officers were trying to detain Prather.
Prather is free on a $2,500 bond.
“We never like for these kinds of things to happen. We know that we are going to face encounters like this so we are prepared for it, but we just want the public to know this is not something that happens all the time,” Chief Teal said. “We want people to see this. We want people to know that you can’t do this and you shouldn’t do this.”
Chief Teal said the officer was sent to the hospital with minor injuries and returned to work the next day.
Two UT Martin basketball players — Kedar Edwards and Chandler Rowe — were charged with disorderly conduct in the incident. Police say they told both men multiple times to leave but that they instead continued to try to start altercations, according to a separate police report.
Edwards and Rowe both reported to the police station Monday to be placed on criminal summons on the disorderly conduct charges. They will appear in General Sessions Court.
