USF Football Player Arrested for Shooting Gun at a Dorm

Guns rights groups in Florida are desperately trying to give students the right to have a gun on the state's college campuses despite polling indicate that just about everyone else thinks thats just a horrible idea. One strange example of why that might not be such a hot idea played...

By Kyle Munzenrieder

October 12, 2015

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Guns rights groups in Florida are desperately trying to give students the right to have a gun on the state's college campuses despite polling that indicates just about everyone else thinks that's just a horrible idea. One strange example of why that might not be such a hot idea played out over the weekend at the University of South Florida's Tampa campus after a football player was arrested for randomly firing a gun at a dormitory building.

The incident happened on Sunday morning just hours after the USF Bulls' home win against Syracuse.

Police received reports of random gunshots coming from a parking garage. Investigators searched the building floor by floor but found it empty. The only lead was a car where a gun case and a box of .45 ammunition was sitting on one of the seats in plain sight.

That car belonged to Benjamin Knox, a 21-year-old defensive lineman. He lived in the same dorm building that was fired upon, and police found him and his gun back inside the dorms.

USF Police are still scratching their heads as to what the motive was.

"There's nothing to indicate that there was a specific person or group intended as the target," assistant police chief Chris Daniel told the Tampa Bay Times. "It doesn't look like they were well-placed shots ... It looks like random squeezing of the trigger, and where they went, they went."

Knox, a former four-star recruit who has played in all five games this season, has not been forthcoming with police.

He was arrested on charges of possessing a firearm on campus and shooting into an occupied building and taken to Hillsborough County jail.

Naturally, Knox has been suspended from the team.

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