Photo: Orange County Jail
Former NFL and Vanderbilt University running back Zac Stacy was arrested at the Orlando International Airport on Thursday (November 18), hours after a video showed him brutalizing his ex-girlfriend in front of their infant child.
The Orlando Sentinel reports Stacy was arrested after exiting an arriving flight from Nashville and transported to Orange County Jail, according to Heidi Rodríguez, a representative for the jail, after an arrest warrant was issued for the former running back in Oakland, Florida.
Oakland Police officers responded to what was deemed to be “a domestic violence battery had taken place and that the suspect, Zackary Stacy, had fled the scene” following an emergency call to the department made at around 2:30 p.m. last Saturday (November 13), the agency confirmed in a statement obtained by the Sentinel.
The Orange County Sheriff's Office also attempted to locate the 30-year-old, but were told that "he had fled the state" of Florida, according to the Oakland Police Department.
Officers located a woman sitting on the living room couch with her shirt torn and food in her hair upon arriving at the scene, according to an affidavit for Stacy's arrest obtained by the Sentinel.
Kristin Evans identified herself as the victim in the incident, sharing multiple angles of the footage on her Facebook account one day prior to TMZ's report and Stacy's arrest on Wednesday (November 17).
"Please share. He is yet to apprehended and is in Nashville area currently," Evans posted.
"Vanderbilt’s finest Zac Stacy violent domestic abuse in front of our 5 month old son," Evans added.
Oakland Police Detective Shawn Dozier confirmed officers watched the surveillance video on Thursday at the time of the incident, which showed Stacy strike the woman twice, knocking her to the ground, before picking "her up like a 'rag doll'" and throwing her "into a 65-inch television."
The television fell on top of the Evans, who was seen in a defensive position and pleading for help in the video.
Dozier said Stacy is also seen grabbing an object and throwing it at the woman's head in the footage.
“While she was still on the floor, pleading with [Stacy] to stop, he picked her up and body-slammed her down onto the baby walker, causing the object to break as she fell,” Dozier said.
The warrant affidavit listed Stacy as being wanted on felony charges of aggravated battery and criminal mischief.
TMZ reports Evans pplied for a restraining order against Stacy for her and her son, citing that she feared for her and her children's lives in the document obtained by TMZ.
The document reports Stacy went to the house to visit his son at around 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, which the Evans claims resulted in the former football player flying into a jealous and violent rage.
"He punched me several times in the head! I begged him to stop because the baby was on the couch just a few feet from where he punched me," Evans wrote in the application.
"He then picked me up and threw me into my TV," she continued. "The TV began to fall and he turned to make sure I wasn't getting up. As I laid on the floor he began to yell at me, telling me I'm destructive. He then picked me up off the floor and off my feet and body slammed me into our son's bouncy seat."
Evans said Stacy then told their son "I love you" before fleeing the scene.
The Oakland Police Department arrest warrant said Stacy was allowed to visit their young child as Evans was "extending an olive branch" sinnce the two were in mediation at the time of the incident, FOX 17 News reports.
The woman said she was treated for a possible head wound, as well as bumps and bruises, at a nearby hospital after the incident occurred.
Stacy was selected by the then-St. Louis Rams in the fifth-round of the 2013 NFL Draft at No. 160 overall, after being selected as a second-team All-SEC running back during his final two seasons at Vanderbilt (2011, 2012).
He spent two seasons with the Rams and one with the New York Jets (2015) during his NFL career, recording 1,355 yards and nine rushing touchdowns on 357 rushing attempts, as well as 53 receptions for 358 yards and one touchdown.
Stacy initially retired from the NFL in February 2017 due to injuries and to take care of his brother with Down Syndrome before coming out of retirement to join the Canadian Football League's Saskatchewan Roughriders in May 2018 and later the Memphis Express of the now defunct Alliance of American Football in 2019.