Chilling details emerge in death of UNLV football transfer Ben Christman

New Details have emerged about the death of UNLV football transfer Ben Christman, including that the senior offensive lineman had complained of chest pains one day before he died.

A police report viewed by the Las Vegas Review-Journal said responding police officers on Feb. 11 — the day of his death — were told by one of Christman’s teammates that he had suffered chest pains during a team practice the day prior. 

One of his coaches then had Christman, 21, undergo an EKG at a team facility.

The results were sent to the team’s cardio doctor, according to the police report. 

A day later, Christman was found dead. 

The report also described the scene Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officers walked into when they were dispatched to his off-campus home at 10 a.m. local time on Feb. 11. 

When officers arrived, two unnamed UNLV teammates of Christman were already at the home and said that they had come to check on him after he missed a morning practice. 

One player told authorities that they arrived shortly before 10 a.m. and found the 21-year-old lying “face up on his bed motionless with what appeared to be foam coming out of his mouth and his face and hands purple,” according to the report. 

The players called 911 and the emergency dispatcher instructed one player to start CPR. 

Christman had appeared to have been dead for a “few hours” and had purple coloration to his right arm, the report said. 

Christman’s death came a day shy of his 22nd birthday.

A cause of death has not yet been released. 

“Our team’s heart is broken to hear of Ben’s passing,” UNLV head coach Dan Mullen said in a statement after the player’s death. “Since the day Ben set foot on our campus a month ago, he made the Rebels a better program. Ben was an easy choice for our Leadership Committee as he had earned the immediate respect, admiration and friendship of all his teammates. Our prayers go out to his family and all who knew him. Ben made the world a better place and he will be missed.”

Christman, a four-star recruit coming out of high school, began his college football career at Ohio State, redshirting in 2021.

He made one appearance in 2022 and then spent the past two seasons playing for Kentucky.