Archived police scanner audio reveals football players Trejan Bridges and Seth McGowan have become suspects in an alleged robbery that took place Thursday night in Norman at the Crimson Park apartment complex.
Dispatches from officers on the scene during the aftermath of the incident reveal an elongated search to find the whereabouts of both players, which forced the Norman Police Department to directly contact the OU athletics department for a current, known address for Bridges.
We start out just after 10pm Thursday night as the first call comes in after a robbery was reported at the Crimson Park apartment complex.
10:10pm: The officer reports her location and that she has answered the 911 call. The first words were not ideal knowing OU football players were potentially involved.
"Apparently they were armed with a gun."
The officer then offers up more reports from the victim who called the police.
"Suspect left on foot. Apparently (the victims) do know the suspect. The suspect left on foot but he knows they drive a new white Lexus. Possibly headed toward this vehicle."
10:11pm: Dispatch continues to ask the officer for a description of the suspect and the officer on scene continues to describe the victim as “excited” and relaying her difficulty in getting information quickly because of the victim’s emotional state.
10:13pm: The officer on scene has gathered a description of the suspects.
"Wearing a facemask, light skinned, wearing a white hoodie, with fatigues. All black clothing with braids."
And at the end, the officer says the thing you don’t want to hear as an OU fan.
"Possibly ball players from OU"
With officers eager to track down the suspects, they continue to push the officer for more information.
"If he knows the suspect can we get a name?"
10:17pm: The officer on the scene explains why she might be having such a tough time getting information from the victim.
"Be advised, he was pistol whipped but he's refusing EMS at this time”.
10:19pm: For the first time we hear a football player's name through the police scanner.
“We did find a Bridges in our system. A Trejan Bridges. 20 years old. Unknown if it's going to be the same guy or not but it kind of matches."
10:21pm: Dispatch lets all officers know they have posted officers at Headington Hall in case the suspects show up back at the dorms. A police presence is starting to envelop campus.
10:22pm: Dispatch releases a last known address for Bridges. Officers start heading that direction to investigate.
10:28pm: Officers realize the addresses for their suspects are not current. They ask for dispatch to contact the University for current addresses. Dispatch returns saying the University did not have current address information for the suspects.
It is probably at this point where OU athletics and Lincoln Riley find out the police are trying to track down one or more of their players. As one officer responds to the university’s inability to find the suspects.
"I'm sure the athletic department has a current address for the suspect."
10:43PM: An officer calls in to dispatch with the name Seth McGowan. It is the first time his name has been mentioned tonight. The officer says that the victim just started looking through the OU football roster and identified McGowan as one of the people who came to his apartment to rob him.
10:46pm: Another officer chimes in to dispatch
"I possibly have a second suspect. First name Seth. Last name is McGowan."
10:48pm: Officers have located Trejan Bridges’ car.
10:50pm: "Norman has Bridges in custody. Apparently he's the only one in the vehicle."
10:52pm: Officers are back reporting in about the robbery. They are with the victim detailing what was taken by the suspects.
"Also some designer shoes were stolen along with a camera."
Since officers had Bridges and his car in custody, they were hoping to match up the stolen goods with Bridges. So they were looking for descriptions.
"What did the designer shoes look like?"
You hear the victim answer in the background
"Balenciaga"
10:58pm: Officers appear to be arranging for Bridges’ car to be towed into the impound center.
“I’m not sure we’ll beat the wrecker over there or not, but can we make sure to have patrol follow the wrecker over to the NIC and let them in and that way we can say the vehicle wasn’t messed with in between?”
11:16pm: Officers now appear to be searching through Bridges’ car at the impound and are asking officers with the victim to verify more information about what was stolen. Which included marijuana.
"Did he know the flavor of the marijuana that was stolen? Or anything about it? Packaging? Etc."
And then comes the punchline of this story if there is one:
"It's called comfortably numb."
The officer continues searching through Bridges’ car.
"We've got marijuana in the car here called 'Oakland Huff or Puff'."
11:17pm: The focus turns back quickly to officers looking for another suspect. You can make an assumption this was McGowan, but no name is ever mentioned.
"One of the possible suspects has an address in Headington. But we are trying to figure out if they want to try to make contact with him via phone or whether we need to go up to his room."
11:28pm: Police are able verify the last time this suspect swiped his card to enter Headington was 8:30pm. They now know he’s likely not in the building.
From 11:28 to 12:36 there was no more mention of the robbery or the suspects or the investigation.
Bridges and McGowan remain suspects. There is still no police report and no charges filed as of mid-afternoon on Saturday.
This is the story told through the police scanner as it happened Thursday, April 15, 2021.
It’s not a finished story yet. But the players involved have been suspended indefinitely pending the resolution of this situation. We’ll end with the statement provided us by OU Athletics.
“We are aware of a matter that may involve OU student-athletes and are monitoring the situation closely. The student-athletes in question have been suspended pending the outcome of an ongoing investigation. We have no other information to share at this time."
