A Florida sheriff's office arrested an NFL player on the Cleveland Browns, says he attacked a deputy and publicly exposed himself
The sheriff's office charged Malik McDowell with exposing his sexual organs in public, resisting an officer, and aggravated battery of an officer.
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- A Florida sheriff's office arrested an NFL player for the Cleveland Browns on Monday.
- The agency charged Malik McDowell, 25 with exposing his sexual organs in public among other charges.
- McDowell's attorney claimed at a hearing Tuesday that somebody may have slipped something into McDowell's drink.
The Broward County Sheriff's Office arrested Cleveland Browns defensive tackle Malik McDowell on Monday, alleging he violently attacked an officer and publicly exposed himself, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
The sheriff's office charged McDowell, 25, with exposing his sexual organs in public, resisting an officer, and aggravated battery of an officer.
According to the arrest report seen by Local 10, McDowell traipsed naked onto the property of a children's learning center while it was in session. When a sheriff's deputy from the Broward County Sheriff's Office approached McDowell, the report alleges the player charged and struck the deputy with his fist.
McDowell was ultimately taken down by the deputy using a taser, but only after the deputy had taken several blows from the NFL player, according to the report.
Local 10 also reported McDowell's attorney claimed in a hearing that "somebody may have slipped him (McDowell) something or given him something that he wasn't aware of, which explains some of this bizarre behavior."
The incident is not McDowell's first violent encounter with authorities. Several months after suffering a traumatic head injury on an ATV in 2019 while playing for the Seattle Seahawks, McDowell pleaded guilty to assault, operating a vehicle while intoxicated, and concealing and receiving stolen property after he assaulted a police officer in Michigan. He was later released from the Seahawks in March 2019 without ever playing a down.
A Michigan judge ultimately sentenced McDowell to serve 11-months in jail.
The Cleveland Browns released a statement on Tuesday noting that they know of the "very concerning incident" and are "in the process of gathering more information."