NFL Pro Bowler Arrested After Allegedly Going Berserk in Funeral Home
Richie Incognito may have been a fantastic offensive lineman at one point in his NFL career, but off the field, he needs to learn the value of living up to his own last name.
The 35-year-old former guard, who made the Pro Bowl in each of his last three years with the Buffalo Bills to go with an appearance as a Miami Dolphin in 2012, is in trouble with the law again.
The Arizona Republic reported that Incognito was at a funeral home in Scottsdale, Arizona, tending to arrangements after the death of his father when he allegedly started flipping out at the staffers.
“At several points during his contact with staff, Incognito threatened to retrieve guns from his vehicle and return to shoot the employees,” Scottsdale police Sgt. Ben Hoster told The Republic.
He also allegedly threatened to trash the place and destroy funeral home property, according to TMZ Sports.
The police officer responding to the 911 operator calmly answered the call to arms, instructing his fellow officers to do anything possible to prevent Incognito from reaching his car in case he made good on the alleged threats.
Incognito ultimately was arrested on misdemeanor charges of threats and disorderly conduct. He was released on bail Tuesday afternoon.
We've received the mugshot for Richie Incognito, who was arrested in Scottsdale yesterday @WKBW pic.twitter.com/AbfUry8N4n
— Matthew Bové (@Matt_Bove) August 21, 2018
Police also obtained a search warrant on the Ford Raptor and found guns in the vehicle, according to TMZ, which said the truck was impounded and the guns taken in as evidence.
Incognito had tweeted late Saturday night about his father’s death and clearly was still in a heightened state of emotional distress.
https://twitter.com/68INCOGNITO/status/1031137459919175681
This is just one more in a long line of conduct issues for Incognito, a man whose days in Miami came to an end over his bullying of teammate Jonathan Martin.
Back in May, a similar case of Incognito going berserk happened in Florida. Police were called to the Life Time gym in Boca Raton after a bizarre incident in which Incognito allegedly threw a tennis ball and then a dumbbell at another patron and screamed for him to leave the gym.
Officers, at that time, referred to Incognito’s mental condition as “an altered paranoid state” and saw fit to have him placed on involuntary psychiatric hold.
Incognito told police at the time that “he thought he was being ‘followed, recorded and tracked by the government,'” the Miami Herald reported.
“There’s a guy walking around with head phones on,” he reportedly said. “I’m running NSA class level 3 documents through my phone. I can’t have anybody in blue tooth capability of me or taking pictures of me.”
Incognito wasn’t arrested in that case because investigators couldn’t prove he had intentions of hurting anyone, according to the report.
While it remains to be seen what comes of the allegations in this case in Arizona, what is clear is that a persistent pattern of behavior continues to be established for a man who appears to be a menace to society wherever he goes.
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