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| NFL star Josh Brent was arrested for involuntary manslaughter. Brent was driving drunk when he hit a portion of a frontage road in Irving, Texas. The accident killed teammate/best friend Jerry Brown. |
The latest tragedy happened when Dallas Cowboys teammate Josh Brent was arrested for involuntary manslaughter in the death of fellow member Jerry Brown. The NFL once again is facing another tragedy in the face of great controversies. Reuters and the Associated Press report on the tragedies.
Saturday's incident gives credence to the ugly behavior of professional stars when they're outside the stadium or in the public life. It follows a week of tragedy when Kansas City Chiefs learned that Jovan Belcher murder his girlfriend and later killed himself after confronting coaches.
Also these incidents open the door to constant agitation from conservatives and White supremacists. They'll use these incidents to drag Blacks and President Barack Obama down into the abyss. They'll find reasons to attack the Black community as a whole. Conservatives already consider Black males as "natural born criminals". White supremacists look at all Blacks as "NIGGERS".
It wouldn't matter who's involved, as long it involves a Black person, they'll find some phony outrage with it!
More details emerge on the incident in Dallas, as Brent faces possible life in prison for him driving while intoxicated. The police in the Dallas suburb of Irving said that Brent, 24, was driving at high speed on a state highway at 2:21 a.m. when the car slammed into an "outside curb, causing the vehicle to flip at least one time before coming to rest in the middle of the service road."
Brown, who had been in the passenger seat, was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital a short time later.
Brent suffered "minor scrapes" and was booked into the Irving jail, where he remained on Saturday awaiting arraignment, police said.
"Officers at the scene believed alcohol was a contributing factor in the crash," police said, adding that Brent was given a sobriety test. "Based on the results and the officer's observations and conversations with Price-Brent, he was arrested for driving while intoxicated," Irving police spokesman John Argumaniz said at a news conference.
Brown, 25, was a linebacker on the professional team's practice squad but had not played any games with the Cowboys. He had played in one NFL game for the Indianapolis Colts this season before joining the Cowboys.
Brown also played for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League in 2011 and for two Arena Football League team, the Jacksonville Sharks in 2011 and the San Antonio Talons in 2012. Arena football is played indoors on a smaller field than NFL or Canadian outdoor football.
Brent, 24, has started in five games for the Cowboys and played 12 this season since regular starting defensive lineman Jay Ratliff was sidelined with injuries.
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones issued a statement expressing his condolences to Brown's family.
"We are deeply saddened by the news of this accident and the passing of Jerry Brown. Our hearts and prayers and deepest sympathies are with the members of Jerry's family and all of those who knew him and loved him."
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| Jerry Brown was the passenger of the vehicle driven by Josh Brent. Brown was killed after his friend was driving drunk on a Irving, Texas highway. |
Brent remained in jail on Saturday and his bond will be set at his Sunday morning arraignment, police said.
The drunk driving charge was upgraded to intoxication manslaughter, a second degree felony which is punishable in Texas by two to 20 years in prison and a fine up to $10,000.
When police arrived on the scene of the accident after several 911 calls, part of the car was on fire. The 2007 Mercedes sedan was resting on its roof in the middle of the road, and Brent was dragging Brown out of the burning car, said Irving police spokesman John Argumaniz at a news conference.
Police believe, based on gouge marks and other physical evidence at the scene, that Brown was driving faster than the posted 45 miles per hour speed limit.
Argumaniz said the Texas police are still looking for witnesses to the crash, which did not appear to involve any other vehicles.
"There were people on scene," he said. "However, it's our understanding that no one saw what took place. They drove up after the accident."
Brent has been arrested for drunk driving before. While he was on the University of Illinois football team, he was arrested February 23, 2009, on a drunk driving charge, according to Champaign, Illinois, county records. He spent time in the county jail and was suspended from the team, according to local media reports. He eventually left school and was drafted by the Cowboys.
The Cowboys team, which has struggled to live up to high expectations this season with 6 wins and 6 losses, is playing the Cincinnati Bengals in Cincinnati on Sunday.
The tragedy comes as the NFL is still reeling from the death of Kansas City Chiefs starting linebacker Jovan Belcher, who shot his girlfriend to death one week ago before driving to the team's training facility and killing himself in front of the coach and general manager.
Details of the Belcher tragedy bring to life what he was doing before he decided to take the ultimate sacrifice of his and his girlfriend's life.
Belcher was stopped by police when they've spotted him sleeping in his car. Jovan Belcher told officers who found him sleeping in his car outside an apartment complex hours before he committed a murder-suicide that he was there to visit a woman he described as his "girlfriend," but that she wasn't home.
The apartment complex is about 10 miles from the Kansas City home Belcher shared with 22-year-old Kasandra Perkins, the mother of their 3-month-old daughter Zoey. Belcher shot Perkins at their home Saturday morning before driving to Arrowhead Stadium, where he committed suicide in the practice facility's parking lot, police said.
Police responded to a report about 2:50 a.m. Saturday of a man sleeping in his car outside an apartment building, police spokesman Darin Snapp said Tuesday. When police approached the car, Belcher got out of the vehicle and was cooperative, Snapp said.
"We ask him `Why are you sleeping here?', and he says he's there to visit his girlfriend, but she's not home," Snapp said.
When police determined Belcher didn't have any outstanding warrants, Snapp said Belcher, 25, made a phone call and a short time later, a woman let Belcher into her building. Police did not question the woman and don't know who she is, he said.
"When he was sleeping she may have come home, and he didn't realize," Snapp said. "He was very cooperative and thanked the officers."
Snapp said that was the last contact police had with Belcher "until his name came up" with the shooting at his home.
Witnesses have since told police that Belcher stayed at that apartment until 6:30 a.m., Snapp said.
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| Jovan Belcher's murder-suicide of his girlfriend still brings unanswered questions to the erratic behavior he had while he was stopped by the police. |
At about 7:50 a.m., police were called to Belcher's home after he had shot and killed Perkins, whose body was found on the floor of the master bathroom with multiple gunshot wounds, according to a police incident report.
Belcher then drove about five miles to Arrowhead Stadium, where he was met by general manager Scott Pioli and coach Romeo Crennel, who Belcher thanked for all they had done for him. When police arrived, Belcher moved behind a vehicle, out of clear view of officers, Snapp said. He said Belcher then knelt down and shot himself once in the head.
Snapp said Belcher also used two separate, legally registered handguns in the shootings.
Friends have said the relationship between Belcher and Perkins was strained. The couple briefly lived apart recently before getting back together by Thanksgiving, friend Brianne York told The Associated Press.
Kansas City Chiefs spokesman Ted Crews said Tuesday he wasn't aware of what counseling efforts the team may have made for Belcher and Perkins.
Belcher played college football at the University of Maine, where he repeatedly was the subject of university police reports. A University of Maine spokeswoman provided the reports to the AP.
In April 2006, Belcher punched his fist through a dorm window after becoming upset over a woman, documents said.
And in February 2007, a noise complaint was lodged after "a discussion outside of his room" between Belcher and a woman. The report says "both stated that she was to contact him by 23:00 hours and did not. He became worried and when she did show up he told her that he did not want to see her until the morning."
Also Tuesday, police posted a brief audio recording of some of Saturday morning's dispatch traffic. In the 1-minute, 41-second audio compilation, a dispatcher is relaying information about the shooting at Belcher's home.
In one segment, the dispatcher says a 22-year-old woman had been shot at the Belcher address, "possibly by her son."
In another segment, the dispatcher says someone is at Arrowhead with an unknown weapon and later that an "unknown party at the (Chiefs) practice field confronted the staff and they don't know what he's armed with."
Snapp said that was the only audio police planned to release regarding the shootings.
