Chad Wheeler’s ex-girlfriend speaks out about alleged domestic assault
The ex-girlfriend of former Seattle Seahawks player Chad Wheeler has spoken out about the alleged violent attack that forced her to hide in a bathroom and left her in fear for her life.
“I had touched my face and I looked down and there was blood on my hand and I remember getting up and running to the bathroom,” Alleah Taylor told CBS national correspondent Jericka Duncan in an interview set to air Wednesday.
“Chad was standing by the bed, by the doorway and he was sipping his smoothie and was like ‘wow you’re still alive?’”
Taylor said the football star, who played for the Giants from 2017 to 2019, had just strangled her to the point of unconsciousness and dislocated her shoulder when she refused to “bow” to him in the early hours of Saturday, January 23.
The ex, who told a 911 operator she was being “killed” when she called for help, told CBS about Wheeler’s apparent cold and detached demeanor following the assault.
“I was able to run to the bathroom, he went back into the living room to continue eating. I had texted his dad too and told him that Chad was trying to kill me, Chad’s dad called him while he was eating and while I was in the bathroom and he answered and he didn’t have any worry at all,” Taylor recounted.
“Chad was like ‘I’m just eating dinner, nothing’s going on and that, that terrified me.”
Wheeler was arrested by the Kent Police Department following the incident and spent two nights in jail before getting released on bail the following Monday. The initial police report stated he’d been taking medication for bi-polar disorder but had recently stopped taking it.
Wheeler later took to Twitter to explain he was in the throes of a “manic episode” and to say he was “deeply sorry for the pain and suffering” he caused Taylor and her family.
“I apologize profusely,” he said, adding that he was “truly ashamed” and planned to step away from football until he can get the help he needs.
Wheeler has pleaded not guilty to the charges.