Seattle Seahawks offensive lineman Chad Wheeler was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence early Saturday morning, and the details from the police report of the incident are extremely disturbing.
Wheeler allegedly assaulted his girlfriend at an apartment in Kent, which is a suburb of Seattle. He bonded out of the King County Jail on Tuesday after bail was set at $400,000.
According to a police report obtained by TMZ, the victim told police that Wheeler suffers from bipolar disorder and had not been taking his medication recently. She said she has been dating Wheeler for six months and that the two never had any issues.
The victim says Wheeler “snapped into a bad place” the night of the incident and told her to bow to him, which she refused to do. She said in a 911 call that she was being “killed,” and officers could hear her screaming inside the apartment when they arrived. The woman told police Wheeler strangled her “with both his hands for some time.” She says she then ran into the bathroom, locked the door and called the police.
Police observed injuries on the victim that included fingerprints on both sides of her neck and “capillaries that had burst at the back of her throat.” Her left elbow was also swollen significantly.
The Seahawks issued a statement on Wednesday addressing the incident.
Wheeler, a backup lineman, appeared in five games for the Seahawks this season. He was undrafted out of USC in 2017 and signed with the Seahawks in the middle of the 2019 season.
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