KING COUNTY, Wash. — Authorities booked Richard Sherman, an NFL free agent and former cornerback for the Seattle Seahawks and the San Francisco 49ers, into jail Wednesday morning on suspicion of burglary domestic violence, according to records from the King County Correctional Facility.
Sherman, 33, was booked into jail around 6:10 a.m. PDT on Wednesday. Records listed him as having bail denied. A spokesman for the Redmond Police Department told ESPN that denying bail is standard procedure in domestic violence cases in which a defendant has yet to appear before a judge.
Update 11:56 p.m. July 14: At a news conference, Redmond Police Department Chief Darrell Lowe said that Sherman also faces charges of suspicion of resisting arrest and malicious mischief. At the same news conference, Washington State Patrol Capt. Ron Mead said that his department is also ready to refer Sherman to prosecutors for possible misdemeanor DUI and hit-and-run charges related to a separate incident Wednesday.
Original report: Authorities said someone called 911 around 2 a.m. local time to report a burglary in progress. At the time, Sherman was trying to get into a family member’s home, police said. According to ESPN, Sherman was arrested at his in-laws’ residence in Redmond, Washington.
Audio of the 911 call was first reported by KIRO Radio.
Responding officers found Sherman outside of the home. He struggled with officers when they tried to take him into custody, but with the help of a police K-9 team, officers were able to arrest him, officials said.
Sherman was taken to an area hospital with a laceration of the lower leg and ankle due to the K9 deployment, KIRO-TV reported.
Authorities believe that before he turned up at the house in Redmond, Sherman crashed a vehicle into a cement barrier to an off-ramp on State Route 520. Troopers with the Washington State Patrol are investigating the hit-and-run.
Trooper Rick Johnson tweeted photos of the car involved in the crash, KIRO reported.
Richard Sherman’s wife, Ashley, told KIRO that the incident “was not a case of domestic violence.”
“It is not what everyone seems to be saying, and the truth will come out later,” she said.
The National Football League Players Association said Wednesday in a statement that they were closely monitoring the situation.
“We were made aware of an arrest last night of one of our player leaders for an alleged domestic violence incident and have activated our domestic violence crisis protocol for the protection and support of everyone involved,” the group said.
Sherman is a vice president of the NFLPA.
Richard Sherman became one of the NFL’s premier cornerbacks while playing for seven seasons for the Seahawks, beginning in 2011, KIRO reported. In 2018, he left for a three-year deal with the 49ers. He completed his third season with the team last year, according to KIRO.