San Diego police said on Tuesday that Chargers wide receiver Legedu Naanee is not a suspect in a Pacific Beach brawl that sent a man to the hospital in the early hours of Monday morning.
Naanee has said from the beginning that, although he was at Bar West -- near where the confrontation took place -- along with several unnamed teammates, he had nothing to do with the fight.
On Tuesday, police verified Naanee's account, in large part, due to a statement provided by a designated driver who witnessed the fight.
"He happens to know who the player was who had been mentioned -- not by the police department -- and he said categorically that was not the individual fighting with the man who went to the hospital," San Diego police Capt. Chris Ball said on Tuesday.
The fight broke out around 2 a.m. At least a half-dozen people were involved, and a 21-year-old man was taken to the hospital with injuries and placed in a medically induced coma after hitting his head, according to investigators.
Initially, a witness told police that Naanee was somehow involved, but after interviewing and re-interviewing several people and going to Chargers Park on Tuesday afternoon to talk with the wide receiver, they cleared Naanee of any wrongdoing.
"For anyone of the Chargers -- or for any public figure -- the challenge for that public figure is, when you are at this type of an incident, that's who people remember," Ball said.
Police said there is no surveillance video of the fight. They are hoping to use video from inside the bar, along with the help of witnesses, to identify who was involved in the fight.
