The family of a former Georgia State University football player charged in a campus dining hall attack says he has struggled with serious mental health problems and may have football-related brain trauma.
Carnell Hopson faces charges of aggravated assault, simple battery, disorderly conduct and criminal trespass after allegedly striking a dining hall employee with a metal chair. The attack occurred at Piedmont Central Dining Hall after a worker let Hopson in through an employee entrance around 3 a.m. Wednesday. Campus police detained him minutes after he fled, and he remains in the Fulton County Jail.
In a public statement, Hopson’s family said changes in his behavior, emotions and thinking began during his playing career and have worsened over eight years. They suspect repeated head impacts may have caused chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE; the condition has not been confirmed. Hopson played four years for Georgia State and graduated from the university.
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