Arrests expected in CT player's murder

STORRS, CT (WPRI) - More arrests are expected soon in the murder of a University of Connecticut football player.

Twenty year-old, Jasper Howard was stabbed to death on Sunday. Now, the lawyer of a Bloomfield, Connecticut man says his client will be charged for fighting with Howard and his teammates, but not for the deadly stabbing.

According to Hartford attorney Deron Freeman, his unidentified client and several others got into a fight with about six, University of Connecticut players following a campus dance early Sunday morning. Howard suffered a single stab wound to the abdomen, and died. A teammate was also stabbed, but survived.

Freeman says his client did not stab Howard, but was there when it happened. Meanwhile, Howard's family is now at the UConn campus, as the university observes a day of silence in his memory. Howard was the first in his family to pursue a college education, and his coach, Randy Edsall, says Jasper was working hard to escape his difficult upbringing.

"And that's what's so sad. That's what makes this thing so tragic. He was doing everything that we asked him to do to escape and to better himself and to better his family," said Randy Edsall.

Howard's family met with each of his teammates, and asked them not to seek revenge. They also asked the team to dedicate the remainder of the season, to Jasper's memory.