Former NFL linebacker Terrell Suggs was arrested Tuesday in connection with an incident in which authorities said he threatened to kill a driver and flashed a gun in a Starbucks drive-thru in Arizona.
The alleged incident, which police said was captured on dashcam video, happened about 12:30 p.m. March 10, Scottsdale police said in a probable cause statement.
Suggs, who was driving a Range Rover, backed into another vehicle after he drove past the speaker. That vehicle, which was not damaged, had a camera with audio capability that recorded the incident, the probable cause statement said.
Suggs and the other driver got out of their vehicles and argued before they got back in them and waited for their orders, but then the confrontation escalated, the probable cause statement said.
“Eventually as the male driver in the black Range Rover began to leave, he ‘flipped off’ the victim and the victim began to swear back at the male driver of the black Range Rover,” the probable cause statement said. “The driver of the black Range Rover stated to the victim repeatedly, ‘You wanna go,'” the probable cause statement said.
The driver swore at Suggs and told him to go away, and Suggs verbally threatened that he would kill him, officials said.
Police said Suggs displayed a weapon a short time later.
He “reached his left arm out of the open driver’s window of his vehicle and displayed a black handgun in his left hand,” the probable cause statement said. “The handgun was never pointed at the victim and was just merely shown, which the victim believed the male was threatening him with.”
After Suggs drove away, the other driver called police and provided a license plate number, according to the probable cause statement.
Suggs was booked into the Maricopa County Jail on Tuesday, according to jail records.
A spokesperson for the jail said Suggs was released Wednesday. He has been charged with one count each of disorderly conduct involving weapons, a felony, and threatening or intimidating, a misdemeanor.
In a statement Wednesday provided by EAG Sports’ Denise White, Suggs said he felt he was in danger.
“I was getting coffee, I was not looking for any trouble,” Suggs said. “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.”
It was not clear Wednesday afternoon whether Suggs had retained an attorney.
Suggs was ordered to have no contact with the alleged victim and not to possess guns.
Suggs spent most of his NFL career with the Baltimore Ravens after they selected him in the first round of the 2003 NFL draft. He continued with the Ravens, with whom he won a Super Bowl in 2013, until the 2018 season.
Suggs, the league’s defensive player of the year in 2011, won his second Super Bowl with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2020 in his final game. He is listed among the NFL’s top 10 leaders in sacks for his career, with 139.
Antonio Planas is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.
Diana Dasrath
contributed
.