NEED TO KNOW
- Former Cowboys star Dez Bryant was involved in an altercation with teenagers on Sunday in Texas
- Bryant alleges that one of the young men cut him off while driving in Southlake
- Police issued Bryant a class C assault by contact misdemeanor after they arrived at the scene
Former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant was involved in an altercation with two teenagers in Texas on Sunday, Oct. 25 resulting in a response from police who arrived with guns drawn.
Authorities in Southlake issued Bryant, 37, a Class C misdemeanor Assault by Contact citation after the interaction at approximately 1 p.m., in which he was seen screaming and threatening two 19-year-olds after the three men pulled over their vehicles in a retail center parking lot following an alleged road rage incident, according to the police department.
Southlake police said the alleged assault occurred after the men began arguing.
Police “drew their firearms upon arrival as a precaution to address any potential threats and ensure the safety of everyone at the scene,” Southlake DPS said.
Credit: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty
In videos from the altercation obtained by local ABC affiliate WFAA-TV, a distressed-sounding Bryant is allegedly seen slapping a phone out of the hand of one of the men.
“You don’t think they don’t know who I am around here?” Bryant screamed at the men, one of which he claimed, minutes earlier, cut him off as he was driving on Kimball Avenue.
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“We never once threatened him,” one of the men, Noah Reyes, claimed to WFAA.
Bryant, who played for the Cowboys from 2010 to 2017, has a different account, which he shared on X on Monday night, minutes before his former team kicked off against the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday Night Football.
“I leaned out the window and told them to stop driving recklessly before they hurt somebody,” Bryant wrote. “After that, I drove around them looking for a parking spot. The guy who had threatened to shoot me pulled up beside me, said he was going to shoot me, then hit the gas, parked, and jumped out of the car talking s---. I started talking s--- back. He said, ‘I got something for you,’ and went back to his car as if he were about to get a gun. I told him, ‘If you pull that gun, you better use it, because otherwise I’m about to beat your ass.’ ”
Bryant continued that the man “went from threatening to shoot me to recording me on his phone.”
“As soon as the officers arrived, the young adult and I were talking trash back and forth,” he said. “I don’t understand why the officer got out of the car and pointed a rifle directly at me.”
Upon arrival, police did not find any firearms at the scene, Southlake DPS said. The three men were placed in handcuffs and ordered to the ground as police officers pointed their weapons at them.
Bryant — whose girlfriend then arrived at the location along with his two young daughters and began filming the tense scene — maintains his innocence.
“There’s only one real victim here…and that’s me,” he wrote. “I don’t understand how anyone could say I followed them when I was already in the right lane..heading to [Mexican restaurant] Chiloso.”
Read the original article on People