5 Cal players charged in assault of West Chester man

CALIFORNIA, PA. » Five football players from a state university in western Pennsylvania were arrested and suspended from the school after police say they beat and stomped a man outside an off-campus restaurant, then fled yelling “Football strong!” The victim was in intensive care Friday with severe brain trauma.

The California University of Pennsylvania players attacked Lewis Camp- bell, 30, of West Chester, as he was trying to stop an argument between his girlfriend and a player at about 2 a.m. Thursday, police said.

Witnesses heard the players yelling “Football strong!” as they fled to a car and Campbell lay unconscious, police said.

The university declared later Thursday that its Division II football team would forfeit Saturday’s against Gannon University, jeopardizing its best season in three years.

“Behavior has consequences,” the university’s interim president, Geraldine Jones, said in a statement.

Officers said they arrested the players — Jonathan Barlow, D’Andre Dunkley, Corey Ford, Rod- ney Gillin Jr. and James Williamson — at practice Thursday afternoon. They are charged with aggravated assault, recklessly endangering another person, harassment and conspiracy to commit aggravated assault.