MELBOURNE, Fla. – Two men who were on the football team at the Florida Institute of Technology are accused of kidnapping a man, beating him and then dumping him at a dog park not far from campus because they believed he drugged their friend, according to the Melbourne Police Department.
The victim said when he left his dorm the evening of Nov. 1 to take out the trash, a black SUV pulled in front of him and Evan Kulyk, a former offensive lineman, grabbed him and forced him into the back seat of the SUV, records show.
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Police said the victim was seated between Kulyk and another former offensive linemen from the team. News 6 is not naming the second player because he has not been arrested, although he has been named as a co-defendant in the case.
FIT has since discontinued its football program but both men were on the roster for the 2019 season.
According to the affidavit, an unknown person was driving the SUV and there was also someone else in the front passenger’s seat. As they drove off campus, records show Kulyk asked the victim, “What did you do to (my friend) last night? Why did you drug her?”
The victim said he didn’t drug Kulyk’s friend but Kulyk still told him, “Once we hit the road, you are dead,” according to authorities. At that point, the second football player in the back seat is accused of brandishing a gun, racking the slide and telling the victim, “We are not kidding.”
Police said the victim insisted that he did not drug the woman but Kulyk signaled to the other football player and someone in the front passenger’s seat and all three of them began hitting the victim on his head, face and back for 30 seconds to one minute. The victim said he was in the fetal position to try to protect himself.
After the beating, records show the SUV pulled up to a dog park a mile from campus and Kulyk threw the victim out of the SUV.
Police said the victim walked to the dorm where the woman he was accused of drugging lived but since she wasn’t home, he spoke with her roommate, who took pictures of injuries to his back, lip and right eye.
He also used Facebook to message the woman he was accused of drugging to ask her to ask Kulyk to give his cellphone back. She found the victim’s cellphone but she didn’t want to see the victim so she gave the phone to Kulyk and when it was returned, it was left smashed on a volleyball court, according to authorities.
Police also spoke with that woman and she said she was at a party Halloween night and told Kulyk that she felt she had been drugged but she never told him to beat anyone up and she never accused the victim of drugging her.
Records show the crime wasn’t reported until Nov. 13.
Kulyk, 21, was arrested Monday on battery and kidnapping charges.
“Florida Tech is closely monitoring the situation involving Evan Kulyk, a current student and former football player. This follows weeks of investigative collaboration between the university and the Melbourne Police Department. Determinations regarding student disciplinary action, up to and including expulsion, await the outcome of the criminal adjudication,” a spokesman for the school said.