An incident report released Monday provides new details on why Clemson football player Vic Burley was arrested on a charge of public disorderly conduct. According to a Clemson University Police Department incident report, Burley was arrested early Saturday morning after officers allegedly found him asleep in his truck with the engine running around 2:15 a.m. and claimed that he was impaired.
After arresting Burley, officers searched his truck and allegedly found a THC vape and a Glock 19 handgun in the vehicle, the report said. The officer who drove Burley to the Clemson City Police Department to be booked in jail also claimed to have “detected the odor of an alcoholic beverage within my vehicle,” he wrote, indicating that the alcohol smell may have come from Burley.
According to the CUPD report for Burley’s arrest, the responding officer initially stopped because he saw another person – identified as a male Clemson student – sleeping on the grass outside a truck around 2:15 a.m. The officer deemed this “odd behavior.” The male Clemson student allegedly told police that he’d been waiting for one of his friends to pick up him and his fiancée after a night out in downtown Clemson. The student allegedly said he hadn’t spoken to the friend who was supposed to pick him up in “a while,” though, the officer wrote. The student was seemingly referring to the driver of the truck parked next to him.
“At this time, I determined that it was odd for the truck to be sitting in this parking space, still on, with the owner not on scene,” the officer wrote. What allegedly happened at the scene Burley’s truck was parked on Calhoun Drive, a road on Clemson’s campus that is within university police jurisdiction. The truck was allegedly parked “unevenly” and “impeding the public roadway,” the report said. When the officer approached the truck, he allegedly saw a person asleep in the driver’s seat, he wrote, and called for another officer to assist. Two CUPD officers opened the driver’s door and allegedly “detected the strong odor of marijuana” coming from the truck, they wrote. They identified the driver as Burley through his driver’s license. Officers claim that Burley remained asleep and “did not respond to his door being opened” or to one of the officers turning off his truck’s engine, the report said. After officers woke up Burley, they wrote that the Clemson defensive tackle was “unsteady on his feet” and speaking with “slurred speech.”
“While speaking with Victor, he was slow to respond and did not directly answer questions, dragging out his answers,” the report claims. Burley also allegedly told police he was waiting to pick up one of his friends and that friend’s fiancée and give them a ride home after the two had been drinking in downtown Clemson. Burley said he’d picked them up in the past. Police search Burley’s car Clemson’s Physical Security Operations Center, which maintains security cameras for campus, told police that Burley’s truck had parked on Calhoun Drive around 10:40 p.m. and Burley hadn’t left the truck until CUPD officers made contact with him almost four hours later around 2:15 a.m. “Based on the factors observed, I placed Victor under arrest for Public Disorderly Conduct,” the responding CUPD officer wrote. “Victor was impaired and planning to drive his vehicle.” During a search, officers allegedly found a THC vape and a handgun in Burley’s truck. The report doesn’t say who the handgun belonged to, only that it was found.
Burley was transported to Clemson city jail and booked without incident, per the report. He was released later Sunday and has an Oct. 14 court date for his public disorderly conduct charge, per online court records. Burley, 21, is in his fourth season at Clemson and has appeared in 21 games (one start). He was expected to be on the team’s two-deep depth chart and play legitimate snaps as a rotational defensive tackle in 2026. In his Saturday statement, Swinney didn’t give a timeline for Burley’s potential return to the program.
