Antonio Brown apprehended in Dubai, will face attempted murder charge in Miami
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- Former NFL star Antonio Brown was arrested in Dubai and will face an attempted murder charge stemming from a May 16 shooting outside a Miami celebrity boxing event.
- Brown allegedly took a security guard’s gun and fired two shots at a man; the victim said he was grazed in the neck.
- Social media posts helped investigators locate Brown in Dubai, and the seven-time Pro Bowl wide receiver chose not to contest his extradition to Miami.
Former NFL star Antonio Brown chose Friday not to contest his extradition from New Jersey to Miami after he was apprehended by U.S. Marshals in Dubai on Thursday. His arrest came nearly five months after a warrant was issued on an attempted murder charge stemming from an altercation outside a celebrity kickboxing event in spring in Miami.
A warrant issued June 11 by the 11th Judicial Circuit in Miami-Dade County shows Brown is charged with second-degree attempted murder with a firearm, a first-degree felony.
Brown was brought from Dubai to a jail in Newark, N.J., where he was being held pending extradition to the Miami-Dade County Jail. He opted not to contest the extradition in a short hearing Friday morning. A second-degree attempted murder charge could, if he is convicted, result in a maximum 15-year prison sentence and up to a $10,000 fine.
“Let this serve as a clear message: no matter who you are or where you run, we will pursue the facts, identify you, locate you, and bring you to justice,” Miami Police Department chief Manuel Morales said in a statement Thursday. “To anyone even considering committing a crime in Miami — know this: we will find you.”
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Brown is accused of taking a handgun from a security staff member outside a May 16 event in Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood and firing two shots at another man. According to the arrest warrant, the alleged victim told police days later that he possibly had been grazed in the neck by one of the bullets.
Brown appeared to address the alleged incident in a May 17 post on X.
“I was jumped by multiple individuals who tried to steal my jewelry and cause physical harm to me,” Brown wrote. “Contrary to some video circulating, Police temporarily detained me until they received my side of the story and then released me. I WENT HOME THAT NIGHT AND WAS NOT ARRESTED. I will be talking to my legal council and attorneys on pressing charges on the individuals that jumped me.”
Days after the warrant was issued, Brown seemed to indicate that he wasn’t in the U.S. in a post on X that included the hashtag #lovefromthemiddleeast. Since then, Brown has remained active on social media, but on Thurday he indicated on X that he had “handed over the keys” to his account to his team while he goes through “this fight for my innocence.”
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Miami police spokesperson Mike Vega told the Athletic that some of those previous posts helped investigators track down the seven-time Pro Bowl receiver, who played nine of his 12 NFL seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers and won a Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after the 2020 season.
“He was taunting us on social media,” Vega said. “We identified he was in Dubai, we let the Marshals know.”
Brown has a history of legal troubles, including a 2019 lawsuit by a former trainer who said he sexually assaulted her multiple times (he denied the allegations, and the case was settled out of court), burglary and battery charges connected to an altercation with a moving company (Brown pleaded no contest in 2020) and a 2023 arrest on suspicion of failing to pay child support.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
