BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – A former Indiana University football player is accused of kidnapping and robbing a man he met through the dating app Grindr.
Police arrested 21-year-old Da’Shaun Brown on charges of robbery, kidnapping and battery.
The arrest stemmed from an April 6 incident under investigation by the Bloomington Police Department. Officers arrived in the 2900 block of E. Amy Lane in response to a reported robbery.
A 30-year-old man told police he’d met an unknown individual, later identified as Brown, on the dating app Grindr and invited him to his apartment.
Brown wore a face covering and asked the man to keep the lights off “so he could not be identified,” police said.
Afterwards, the man said Brown held a knife to his neck and threatened to kill him if he didn’t turn over all his money. The man showed him his wallet to prove he didn’t have any cash. Brown then covered the victim’s head with a coat and forced him outside to the suspect’s vehicle, the man told police.
Brown struck the victim in the face and ordered him into the back seat. He drove to a nearby ATM twice in an attempt to get cash from the victim’s credit cards. Brown then dropped the victim back at his home and deleted the Grindr app from the man’s phone before leaving.
He threatened to kill the victim and warned him not to call police.
Police obtained surveillance footage from the ATM, which showed Brown’s vehicle and its license plate. They located the vehicle in the 1200 block of N. Lincoln Street and watched the area in hopes of finding the driver.
After seeing Brown go to the vehicle, police applied for a search warrant for his residence. Once it was granted, they knocked on the suspect’s door. Brown answered; detectives searched the residence and located clothing worn by the suspect on the night of the incident as well as three credit cards belonging to the victim.
Police arrested Brown after interviewing him about the incident.
According to an Indiana University spokesman, Brown is a former football player who was dismissed from the team in October 2021.
He is not a current student at the university.
