Fooch’s update: There are new details about the October incident. The San Francisco Chronicle spoke with Santa Clara police captain Wahid Kazem and he offered some details. He said a neighbor of Foster and Ennis called police on the evening of October 12 to report a loud argument. Foster and Ennis were yelling over something on his cell phone.
There were no signs of injury in the disturbance, the captain said, but officers took photographs and made video recordings.
Officers filed a report on the incident, which they classified as a “domestic disturbance,” advised the couple to resolve their dispute peaceably, and left without making arrests.
In case you didn’t think the Reuben Foster situation could go any further off the rails, I present the latest news. San Francisco Chronicle reporter Evan Sernoffsky is reporting police were called in October and informed of a domestic violence incident involving Foster and the current alleged domestic violence victim Elissa Ennnis.
Sernoffsky’s report seems to suggest he was never booked for the incident. It could have been the police getting a call and deciding there was nothing to book, but it is not entirely clear. California requires an arrest when there is suspicion of domestic violence. Either way, the 49ers have gone on the record to state they were not aware of the October incident.
Earlier today prior to the game, 49ers GM John Lynch talked about Foster making progress in regaining the 49ers trust. Lynch said the decision to release Foster was not a comment on the domestic violence charge, but rather his failure to live up to what was communicated. After the game, when asked point-blank if it was strictly because of Saturday night, Shanahan said it was a number of things. He said, “there’s also a lot of other things that he made bad mistakes on, bad decisions and things that we needed him to follow by, and he struggled with that.”
This whole situation is a mess for everybody involved. While I find it hard to believe there was not a single person in the 49ers organization who was aware of the alleged October incident, we weren’t there and can’t really know for sure what went on. If Senoffsky’s reporting is accurate, one would think the police would release a statement or otherwise address the matter at some point. Hopefully we get some clarity on this because this situation is only growing more complicated.