COLUMBIA — South Carolina women’s basketball standout Ashlyn Watkins was arrested and charged with first-degree assault and battery and kidnapping following an incident on Saturday.
A program spokesperson said that USC is aware of the arrest and continuing to gather information. Another USC spokesperson said that as far as they knew, USC’s policy of automatically suspending an athlete from their program upon an arrest was still active.
Online judicial records show that Watkins had a bond hearing at 2 p.m. Saturday and has a court date on Oct. 25. She was released on a $30,000 personal recognizance bond.
According to a report from WLTX, warrants say that Watkins “forcefully” grabbed the victim’s face, pulled her arms and pushed her at 650 Lincoln Street, the student housing center where all basketball players reside.
Watkins is also alleged to have picked up the victim against her will and carried her down the hall, thus preventing her from leaving, which can be defined as kidnapping. The victim eventually escaped and pulled a fire alarm.
She was treated for non-life-threatening injuries. The warrant says that Watkins was read her Miranda rights and confessed.
A junior, Watkins has been an integral role of the past two USC teams, known for her ability to dunk and be able to take over a game at any time. The Columbia native graduated from Cardinal Newman High.
