Former NFL and Vanderbilt University running back Zac Stacy told police his ex-girlfriend "staged" a brutal domestic incident following his arrest last month.
TMZ shared police video of Stacy being detained at Orlando International Airport and questioned by police, which shows the football player claiming that the November 13 incident "was staged."
"It's just a case of just bitterness, man," Stacy said in the video. "That's why she did this. The whole assault thing, she staged it. She set me up."
Stacy claimed the mother of his child was upset with him after he tried to end their romantic relationship and said the woman knew he wasn't in a good place mentally, while also accusing her of having "an affair" with a former Vanderbilt teammate who was working as his financial adviser.
"She knew I was down, she knew I was going through anxiety and depression," Stacy said. "She knew I was trying to close this gap that's between me and my son and she's just upset that she got caught and she's upset I'm not taking care of him like she expected. And now she took it this far."
Stacy returned to Nashville after the incident in Central Florida and told police "I just hopped on a flight to turn myself in" prior to being detained.
"This is just a case of just girl is just bitter that I don't want to be with her and she's just trying to destroy my whole reputation 'cause of this s***," Stacy added, then admitting to officers that his actions were "f****d up."
"I don't know what man -- how any man could have handled that situation," Stacy said.
Stacy was arrested on November 18 hours after a video showed him brutalizing his ex-girlfriend in front of their infant child and has since been released on bond.
The Orlando Sentinel reported 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 be apprehended and is in the 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 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 applied 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 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" since 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.
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