Former San Jose State volleyball coach sees home vandalized after suspension for protesting men in women's sports

The Scotts Valley, California home of Melissa Batie-Smoose, the former assistant volleyball coach for San Jose State University, was shot at on Monday night in what police are investigating as an act of vandalism.

Scotts Valley Police Department Captain Scott Garner told Fox News that officers determined that it was a pellet gun used in the act, which has since been recovered. No one was harmed in the act, and a suspect or motive has yet to be determined. Garner told the outlet, "We're following up with some neighbors just to see what we can find out. At this point, there's no surveillance, there's no leads, there's no nothing. We're just going to do our due diligence to go and interview the neighbors."

Batie-Smoose’s contract with San Jose State was not renewed after it expired on January 31, after the former coach was suspended from the team in November in the wake of her filing a Title IX complaint against San Jose State for the inclusion of trans-identified male player Blaire Fleming. Batie-Smoose is also involved in a lawsuit against the Mountain West Conference alongside 11 female conference players over Fleming.

No link between Batie-Smoose’s complaint, the ongoing lawsuit, and her departure from San Jose State have been determined by police.

Batie-Smoose believes she was "targeted," telling Fox News "I do" in response to a question as to whether she thinks the incident was linked to San Jose State and Fleming. "It can't be a coincidence. I have never had this happen and in our neighborhood, I talked to neighbors that have lived there over 10 years and not even a robber in the area, let alone someone shooting at someone in their house."

She said that the incident occurred when she was in a virtual meeting with members of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports, during which she was speaking with the Mountain West Conference players involved in the lawsuit and lead attorney Bill Bock about the legal battle and the NCAA’s new policy on transgender athletes. While talking, she heard glass break in the background.

"I hear this big sound and it sounds like breaking glass and at first I was just like ‘what just happened? Where did that sound come from?’ And then, once it registered, I look over to the window and I see the bullet hole," she said, adding that she crawled on the floor to get behind her couch, where she called her husband and told him to call the police. She said the pellet was shot at a window that faces her backyard, and most of her neighbors were not home at the time.

"Police said the shot had to come from the street behind me," she said, calling the decision to investigate the incident as an act of vandalism due to the weapon used "crazy."