The New England Patriots announced on Friday that its ProShop is offering a free jersey exchange for any No. 81 Aaron Hernandez jersey. The announcement happened to follow news of a third arrest in connection to the Odin Lloyd homicide investigation, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
The Patriots ProShop will offer a free exchange for any Hernandez jersey between July 6 and July 7, according to the team website. No. 81 jersey owners can trade their Hernandez jersey for another Patriots jersey of equal value.
The exchange is valid only at the Patriots ProShop at Gillette Stadium.
"We know that children love wearing their Patriots jerseys, but may not understand why parents don't want them wearing their Hernandez jerseys anymore," Patriots spokeswoman Stacey James told the team website. "We hope this opportunity to exchange those jerseys at the Patriots ProShop for another player's jersey will be well received by parents."
The Hernandez investigation, meanwhile, continues.
A third man, Ernest Wallace, was arrested Friday afternoon in connection to the Lloyd murder investigation. Wallace was taken into custody in Miramar, Fla., hours after a Connecticut judge ordered Carlos Ortiz to be turned over to Massachusetts authorities.
Ortiz, 27, was arrested on Thursday in Hernandez's hometown of Bristol, Conn. Authorities charged him as a fugitive from justice. He was being held on $1.5 million bail in Hartford, until the judge ordered him to be handed over to Massachusetts law enforcement during a hearing Friday morning, according to the Associated Press.
Both Wallace and Ortiz are believed to be connected to the murder of Lloyd. Hernandez was charged on Thursday with murder and five gun-related offenses; a superior court judge upheld the district court's decision to hold the former Patriots star without bail.
Hernandez is also under investigation for a 2012 unsolved double homicide in Boston.
