Rochester Football Player Niko Kollias Describes Kidnapping, Torture

In a piece for ESPN's Outside the Lines, former University of Rochester defensive end Niko Kollias shared the story of his 2015 abduction, detailing to Tisha Thompson and Andy Lockett how he was tortured for nearly two days.

ESPN shared a video preview of the piece (warning: video contains disturbing images):

Following his abduction, Kollias said he had had "three or four blood transfusions," while doctors had to insert a surgical rod in his femur after the captors shot him. He also required surgery to remove "glass from my eardrum and scalp and skull."

Kollias was abducted in December 2015 along with a friend from the football team.

According to Thompson and Lockett, the abduction was the result of an assault the month before involving another former Rochester football player, Isaiah E. Smith. Smith admitted to his role in the assault that occurred in an apartment where Kollias' friend lived. In retaliation, a family member of one of the victims of the assault orchestrated Kollias' kidnapping.

In the early hours of Dec. 5, 2015, Kollias and the friend arrived at an off-campus house with other friends. Shortly thereafter, Kollias told Thompson and Lockett "five to 10 masked men" appeared "with bats and pipes and knives and guns." One of the men shot Kollias as he attempted to exit the house. He and his friend were held captive and tortured there for at least 40 hours.

Eventually, police were alerted to Kollias and his friend's whereabouts, and a SWAT team arrived to free them.

According to the Chicago Tribune's Tony Briscoe, five men and four women were arrested in connection with the abduction. Of the nine, five pleaded guilty to kidnapping and the other four were convicted in a criminal court.