PITTSBURGH — Jarron Jones, an offensive lineman on the Pittsburgh Steelers‘ practice squad, was arrested early Saturday morning and charged with aggravated assault, strangulation and simple assault, according to a criminal complaint obtained by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
The arrest stems from an alleged physical altercation between Jones, 26, and his girlfriend at a Pittsburgh residence in the early hours of Oct. 3, according to the criminal complaint.
“We are aware of the situation regarding Jarron Jones,” Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert said in a statement. “We are gathering all of the details of these disturbing allegations, but we will not comment any further at this time.”
When police arrived at the residence, they found a woman crying and breathing heavily as she walked downstairs from a second-floor apartment, according to the criminal complaint obtained by the Post-Gazette.
The woman then told police there had been a physical altercation between her and a man upstairs, who was identified as Jones, according to the criminal complaint. When Jones walked downstairs, he was immediately detained, and he told the police he was renting the apartment and was dating the woman, according to the complaint.
Jones told police that, after returning separately from a night out, the woman began “breaking items in the apartment and yelling at Jones,” according to the complaint. Then, he picked up the woman by “grabbing her by the back and legs and placed her outside,” the complaint said.
The woman, though, told police Jones strangled her, hit her in the face, smashed his Xbox console over her face, picked her up and threw her outside, according to the complaint. She also told police she lost consciousness during the altercation, according to the complaint.
Police also wrote in the complaint that the woman had abrasions on the right side of her face near her temple, bruising with some swelling on her right forearm and a small abrasion on her upper left chest region. She was taken to a local hospital in stable condition, according to the complaint.
Jones was taken to the Allegheny County Jail.
The Steelers initially signed Jones, a Notre Dame product, in April after he spent an abbreviated XFL season with the New York Guardians. Though he didn’t make the 53-man roster, he did earn a spot on the team’s practice squad.
The arrest comes as the Steelers are on an unplanned bye week after the Week 4 game against the Tennessee Titans was rescheduled to later in the season because of a COVID-19 outbreak within the Titans’ organization.