MASSILLON, Ohio — Police reports obtained by 3News provide new information regarding the ongoing hazing investigation involving Massillon Washington High School football players.
According to a report filed on June 27, the Massillon Police Department was contacted by school administrators regarding potential hazing incidents that had occurred during the downtime of a football practice the day prior. According to the report, multiple football players would participate in a game where half a dozen or more players rushed an unsuspecting target, tackling him to the ground and taking an article of clothing from him.
While most targets were able to escape without losing an article of clothing or only a shoe, one unsuspecting target allegedly had his shorts taken and was naked from the waist down. The incident was filmed on Snapchat by a player.
The player who filmed the incident admitted to the team's head coach, Nate Moore, that he had done so and said he deleted the video after he realized the player who had been tackled was naked. Moore viewed the video in deleted Snapchat recordings, but saw no evidence that the video had been shared. The video was collected as evidence.
Using surveillance video from the indoor football field, MWHS administrators identified 15 alleged suspects and six potential victims. The parents of all involved were contacted and officers interviewed all of the potential victims, as well as the four players allegedly involved in the incident where the player had his pants stripped.
According to police, none of the victims interviewed said they believed the incidents were malicious and many of them stated they were friends with the alleged suspects. The victim who had his pants stripped said that it was his birthday and that he had been expecting to receive "birthday shots," which means getting tackled, hit, pinched, smacked or any kind of rough physical contact for the purpose of celebrating.
The victim said that this was considered normal, except for the part he had his pants stripped. While he said he was upset in the moment, he said that he wasn't after the incident and that he did not wish for his friends to be criminally charged and that he will continue to hangout with them.
Police also made contact with the victim's mother, who said that her son told her about the incident the night it happened. The mother and son had a conversation about the incident and agreed that while it got out of hand, they did not wish to pursue criminal charges.
The four potential suspects admitted to being a part of the incident by tackling and wrestling with the victim to police, but none of them admitted to pulling the victim's pants down and none of them could recall who did. They were told that criminal charges could be pursued if any footage or witnesses disputed their claims.
On July 2, Coach Moore provided police with a second video of the same incident, which was sent to him by a booster club member. The booster club member received the video from his daughter, who is a student at MWHS and was sent the video. It was later determined that the video was not sent to her by anybody directly involved in the incident.
The Massillon Police Department also advised the school that it could not begin a Title IX investigation into the incident until the police's investigation was complete. The school agreed that any relevant video found while reviewing security footage would be forwarded to police.
On July 11, the police department submitted subpoena for security footage from the school's indoor football facility. The request was fulfilled the following day.
Earlier this week, 3News confirmed that Coach Moore, who is also the school's athletic director, had been placed on leave while the investigation remains ongoing. We have reached out to Massillon City Schools for further comment.