Unless you’ve been very busy today, you’re already aware that Shadrach Thornton was involved in an accident with a pedestrian while driving his moped/motor scooter yesterday evening. Much has been discussed about the particulars of the incident (mostly speculative since no one seems to know for sure), as well as Shad’s past transgressions. The bottom line was a lot of folks wondering how Head Coach Dave Doeren would/should respond.
Now we know.
Thornton has been dismissed from the team.
“It’s an unfortunate set of circumstances, but we’ve made the decision to dismiss Shadrach from our program,” Doeren said in a statement.
Raleigh police said Thornton, of 2717 Western Blvd., was driving a scooter that hit Jimmie Woodard near the intersection of Avent Ferry Road and Western Boulevard at about 9:15 p.m. Raleigh police said Thornton was driving north on the sidewalk on the southbound side of Avent Ferry Road. Woodard was walking south on the sidewalk.
Woodard was not seriously injured, police said, but he had to get stitches to close a wound on his face.
“I hold no grudge against him,” Woodard said. “I don’t know (Thornton). I know of him now, but I don’t know the man, so I hold no grudge.”
Woodard said he was waiting for a bus when he was hit.
“The next thing I know, I see a motor scooter coming my way, and I just got hit,” he said. “I was aware because I saw the blood on my shirt.”
Woodard said Thornton did not stay to help him, but Lee Turner, Thornton’s attorney, said Thornton talked with Woodard before leaving the scene.
“I understand that he was polite, cooperative and gave the officers a full statement about what happened,” Turner said. “I understand that after the accident he did have a conversation with the victim before leaving the scene.”
The question now becomes how this will affect the team in the short term re: distractions (hopefully not at all), and how it will affect the usage of what was a loaded stable of RB’s.
Will Jaylen Samuels, Dakwa Nichols or even Johnny Frasier (who was tentatively expected to redshirt ’15) have different roles for the ’15 season now that the unit is a man down?
At the very least, Reggie Gallaspy likely just inherited a significant increase in touches.
Discuss amongst yourselves.
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I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that fans of “that other school” were already pointing to Shad’s continued presence as a greater offense than their ENTIRE ATHLETIC PROGRAM’S ongoing multi-decade cheating scandal. They are some arrogant f-cktards over there, for realz.
I’ll refrain from comment about some of the local media’s actions regarding Shad, in contrast to their head in the sand attitudes about some other issues.
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And I’d be further remiss if I didn’t wish good luck to Shad. Fun guy to watch run. Hope he gets things worked out and catches on somewhere and his career continues.
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