Update: WSET is reporting that the altercation was between Best and his girlfriend. The girlfriend reported that Best hit and strangled her, and then took her cell phone from her when she threatened to call police and wouldn’t let her leave the room.
Update: Best was booked into the Blue Ridge Regional Jail at 4:35 a.m. on Wednesday and is being held without bond. He’s charged with two felonies, abduction by force/intimidation and strangulation resulting in wound/injury; and two misdemeanors, assault and damaging a phone line to prevent a 911 call.
Keith Best has been dismissed from the Liberty football team, as announced by head football coach Turner Gill. Best was a redshirt-freshman cornerback and was dismissed due to a violation of team policy.
During his two years with the program, he did not play for the Flames. Best redshirted during the 2017 season, as he was still recovering from a knee injury suffered during September of his senior year in high school. He has not seen any playing time through 7 games this season.
He was one of two 3-star recruits that signed with Liberty as part of the 2017 class. Both Coach Gill and Defensive Coordinator Robert Wimberly described Best as being a “steal” when they discussed him on Signing Day 2017.
There was a Keith Tamar Best arrested in Lynchburg on October 24th and charged with 2 felonies – abduction by force/intimidation and strangulation resulting in wound/injury – and 2 misdemeanors – assault and damaging a phone line to prevent a 911 call. It hasn’t been confirmed this is the same Keith Best that was on the football team, but the Keith Best that was arrested and the Keith Best that was on the football team both have birth dates on December 23rd.
I asked Wimberly about Best earlier this month to see where he was on his progress:
“We’ve seen improvement,” Wimberly said. “It’s all about him continuing to trust the process. That can be tough. He was a highly recruited young man, had SEC offers. We know he can play, and mentally we can tell he has that presence. It’s just about trusting the process. You can’t ever put a timetable on that when it comes to young men and knee injuries, but I can tell you he’s working hard.”
This is a developing story.
