Buffalo basketball player Malik Zachery was charged Friday with assault and weapons possession after allegedly stabbing a Canisius basketball player during an off-campus pickup scrimmage on Wednesday, authorities said. Zachery, a JUCO transfer who signed with the Bulls out of Florida's Chipola College earlier this year, is accused of stabbing the Canisius player in the leg.
The incident took place at a church gym in North Tonawanada, New York, a Buffalo suburb. The North Tonawanda Police Department said that patrol officers who responded on the scene put a tourniquet in the stabbed player's leg, identified later as Canisius senior forward Scott Hitchon, to control the bleeding before he was treated at a hospital. He was released from the hospital on Thursday and a subsequent investigation identified Zachery as a suspect.
"The investigation revealed that members of the Canisius College men's basketball team and members of the University at Buffalo men's basketball team were participating in a pickup scrimmage basketball game," said the city's police department in a press release. "At some point during the basketball game there was a physical altercation that occurred between the players. During the physical fight, a member of the Canisius College basketball team was stabbed in the leg."
Zachery fled the scene before authorities arrived but was picked up Friday and is being held pending his arraignment. The program has suspended him indefinitely.
"The University at Buffalo and its Division of Athletics are aware that North Tonawanda Police is investigating an alleged incident involving a member of our men's basketball team," UB said in a statement. "We are cooperating fully with its investigation."
The 6-foot-2 Zachery arrived with high acclaim out of Chipola College, picking the Bulls during his recruitment despite other listed offers from Ole Miss, Cal, UCF and a handful of others.
