A Notre Dame football player and former football player were arrested by South Bend Police early Sunday morning, and police say the players were involved in a fight downtown.Captain John Williams, public information officer for South Bend police, confirmed freshman Isaiah Gardner, a defensive back, was arrested for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest and senior Garron Bible, a former safety, was charged with resisting arrest. Bible said the incident was a "real big misunderstanding" and said that he and Gardner were not in the fight and were arrested by police to set an example.Williams confirmed that police were called to the 200 block of South Mich-igan Street just before 3 a.m. Sunday morning to respond to a fight and told everyone to leave when they arrived. Police arrested Bible, 22, Gardner, 19, and two other men, who Williams was not able to identify.Bible said that he and Gardner had gone to Heartland earlier that night and then went to Benchwarmers. Heartland, which normally requires patrons to be 21 or over, was rented out for a private party that evening. When they were leaving Benchwarmers, Bible said, a large crowd had gathered around a fight, and police were telling people to leave. "It was crowded though, we had to wait our turn," Bible said.Bible said he was arrested when he questioned a police officer whom he said poked Gardner, telling him to move along."A police officer started pushing my teammate Isaiah in the back," Bible said. He said he asked the officer, "'Why you gotta put your hands on him?'"Bible said that after he was in the squad car, Gardner was also arrested.According to a spokesperson at the St. Joseph County Jail, Bible and Gardner were both brought to the jail at 3:21 a.m. Sunday and released at 4:56 a.m. on a $250 bond.Coach Tyrone Willingham declined to comment specifically on the event."There was an incident this weekend, but beyond that I really can't say much more. A matter of this nature normally falls under the guidelines of our University, so we'll let them handle it," he said.Gardner declined to comment on the incident.Both men are scheduled to appear in court May 5. Bible said he has not hired an attorney at this time and that he is still reviewing his options."We have the court date. We are going to take the necessary actions we have to do to be prepared for that," Bible said. "How [the police] treated the situation could have been better."
Pat Leonard contributed to this report.
