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Josh Weinfuss, ESPN Staff Writer
Former NFL player Terrell Suggs was arrested Tuesday in Scottsdale, Arizona, on two charges, a month after a dispute in a Starbucks drive-thru line led to Suggs sticking a gun out of his window, according to police records.
Suggs was charged with threatening and intimidating, and disorderly conduct with a weapon, and released early Wednesday morning.
On March 10, Suggs, driving a black Range Rover, threatened to kill another driver after he backed into his car while trying to reverse in a Starbucks drive-thru line after initially driving past the ordering speaker, according to the police records. After Suggs hit the car, he and the man whose car Suggs hit got out of their vehicles and began arguing about whether or not Suggs actually hit the man’s car. Both men got back into their cars without incident and finished their Starbucks orders, but when Suggs drove away, he stuck his middle finger up at the other man, and the man began to swear at Suggs. The two men then exchanged obscenities and Suggs said he would kill the other man.
As Suggs began to pull out of the drive-thru, he stopped his car and stuck a handgun out of the driver’s side window. The gun was never pointed at the other man, according to police records, but the man took Suggs’ action as a threat. Before Suggs could drive off, the driver of the other car wrote down Suggs’ license plate number and then called police.
The other car had device recording audio and video attached to the front the car, so the entire incident was captured.
In a statement released via EAG Sports’ Denise White, Suggs said he feared for his safety during the dispute.
“I was in a quiet area of Scottsdale in the middle of the day in a Starbucks drive thru near my home when an incident happened with a vehicle behind me. I was getting coffee, I was not looking for any trouble. When the man in the other vehicle escalated the situation, I feared for my safety not knowing what his intentions were. Throughout the incident, I was the one who felt in danger, while fearing I would be followed home and for the safety of my family nearby at my residence,” he said in the statement.
The Scottsdale police officer who was first on the scene and reviewed the video footage was able to identify Suggs because of his contact with Suggs twice before. That officer had given Suggs a speeding ticket on Dec. 12 and then interacted with Suggs again at a court hearing for the ticket. Suggs was stopped at 2:40 p.m. on Tuesday shortly after leaving his house in Scottsdale and arrested at 2:58. A weapon was found in Suggs’ car when he was stopped by detectives on Tuesday, according to the police report. He was released at 2 a.m. Wednesday. Suggs is due in court on April 25 for a status conference, and his preliminary hearing will take place on April 29.
As part of Suggs’ supervised release, he’ll have to give up any weapons in his possession.
Suggs, who played college football at Arizona State, was the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2003 and the Defensive Player of the Year in 2011. A seven-time Pro Bowl selection, Suggs was a first-round pick (10th overall) by Baltimore in 2003 and won Super Bowl championships with the Ravens (SB XLVII) and Chiefs (SB LIV).
Field Level Media contributed to this report.
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