Kalen Grimes arrested

By Juana Summers

Published July 11, 2007

Senior forward Kalen Grimes of the MU men's basketball team was arrested and faces charges of felony aggravated assault after a violent incident in a St. Louis suburb early Saturday morning.

Grimes was arrested at about 3 a.m. Saturday morning near a Dairy Queen in his hometown of Florissant, Mo. following a fight outside of the restaurant.

"He essentially got into a fight with someone out in the parking lot, and it turned out that he had a shot gun," said Capt. Jerry Burke, a spokesman for the Florissant Police Department. "He took the butt end of the shotgun and hit the fellow in the face. Then he was arrested."

Burke said the case was taken over by the St. Louis County prosecutor's office, and the prosecutor is expected to issue a warrant for Grimes' arrest.

Second-degree assault is a felony charge. If convicted, Grimes could see up to 15 years of jail time.

Following the altercation and arrest, men's basketball coach Mike Anderson immediately suspended Grimes from both practice and play for an indefinite amount of time. Grimes' suspension also bars him from using athletic department facilities to work out or to practice with the team.

"With this suspension, Kalen will not be allowed to work out with our team and must take the necessary steps to not only earn the trust of his coaches and teammates, but the trust of Missouri's alumni and fan base," Anderson stated in a news release.

Grimes' arrest and suspension comes on the heels of a shooting in downtown Columbia that injured junior forward DeMarre Carroll. Carroll was shot in the ankle on the morning of July 5 outside of Club Tropicana. Following the shooting, the Tigers implemented a no-tolerance policy with regard to the team's personal conduct policy.

"We instituted strong social responsibility standards from the first day we arrived here at Missouri and expect our young men to conduct themselves in a first-class manner in both the classroom and in their everyday lives," Anderson stated in the release. "Those standards were not met by Kalen, which included a zero-tolerance policy we implemented following the unfortunate events surrounding DeMarre Carroll last week.

Due to the nature of the situation and pending legality, individuals in the MU athletics department declined to comment further on Grimes' future with the team.