Former NFL star Antonio Brown has been arrested on an attempted murder charge stemming from a shooting after a celebrity boxing event in Miami, police confirmed Thursday.
Brown, 37, was taken into custody by U.S. Marshals in Dubai, said Miami police spokesman Mike Vega. He was flown to Essex County, New Jersey, where he is being held pending extradition to Miami, Vega said.
It was unclear why Brown was taken to New Jersey first or how long he had been in Dubai, although he has posted several times on social media over the past few months from there.
According to an arrest warrant detailing the May 16 shooting, Brown is accused of grabbing a handgun from a security staffer after the boxing match and firing two shots at a man he had gotten into a fistfight with earlier. The victim, Zul-Qarnain Kwame Nantambu, told investigators one of the bullets grazed his neck.
It was unclear from court documents whether Brown has an attorney. It also was not immediately known when Brown might be returned to Miami.
A second-degree attempted murder charge carries a maximum 15-year prison sentence and up to a $10,000 fine in the event of a conviction.
Brown, who spent 12 years in the NFL, was an All-Pro wide receiver who last played in 2021 for Tampa Bay but spent most of his career with Pittsburgh. For his career, Brown had 928 receptions for more than 12,000 yards and 83 touchdowns.
Brown has dealt with several legal problems over the years. He previously had been accused of battery of a moving truck driver, several domestic violence charges, failure to pay child support and other incidents. During a 2021 game with Tampa Bay against the New York Jets, Brown took off his jersey, shoulder pads and gloves and ran off the field, leading to his release by the Buccaneers and effectively ending his football career.
This photo provided by the Essex County Department of Corrections shows former NFL player Antonio Brown on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (Essex County Department of Corrections via AP)
FILE - Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Antonio Brown (81) walks on the field during an NFL football game against the New York Jets, Jan. 2, 2022, in East Rutherford, N.J. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger, File)
MEXICO CITY (AP) — An explosion outside a local police station in the western Mexican state of Michoacan Saturday killed at least two people and wounded seven, local and federal security officials said.
The explosion came as the federal government has stepped up security activities in the state, sending in additional troops after two recent high-profile assassinations.
Hector Zepeda, commander of the Coahuayana community police, said Saturday the blast killed two of his police officers and that civilians were among the wounded. He said remains of some of the victims were found scattered in the area of the explosion, which also damaged nearby buildings.
“With this operation (from the federal government) a lot of marines came,” Zepeda said. “We stopped doing patrols because the operation is going on.”
The community police, which patrol various rural communities, are a remnant of the civilian vigilante forces that took up arms more than a decade ago to defend communities from drug cartels, and then were formalized by the state.
Coahuayana is near the Pacific coast in western Michoacan and the border with the state of Colima, a stronghold of the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
Saturday’s explosion happened while Michoacan Gov. Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla was in Mexico City to celebrate with President Claudia Sheinbaum the anniversary of their Morena party’s arrival in power seven years ago.
Ramírez Bedolla and Sheinbaum have been criticized for the deteriorating security situation in Michoacan where numerous drug cartels are fighting to control territory, terrorizing locals.
At least three of the six drug cartels that the Trump administration designated as terrorist organizations — Jalisco New Generation, United Cartels and The New Michoacan Family — operate here, in addition to a slew of homegrown armed splinter groups, some supported by the Sinaloa Cartel.
Explosives dropped from drones, buried as mines or planted alongside roadways are increasingly employed by criminal groups operating in the state. Last year, some 3,000 explosive devices were seized in the state compared to 160 in 2022. So far this year, there have been more than 2,000, according to the state security agency.
Michoacan is a key importer of chemical precursors for synthetic drugs. In the last two months, 17 drug laboratories were dismantled by Mexican authorities there. The state also produces avocados exported to the U.S. and is a major producer of limes, sectors extorted by cartels for years.
The state government said Saturday in a statement that an “explosive device” was responsible, but did not provide details. Images circulating online showed a completely burned out vehicle.
Last month, Sheinbaum sent 2,000 troops — on top of the 4,300 permanent ones and 4,000 in neighboring states – to Michoacan following the killings of an outspoken representative of the lime growers and a popular mayor standing up to the cartels.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum addresses supporters during a celebration marking the seven years of the Fourth Transformation movement, or 4T, initiated by former Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, in the Zócalo of Mexico City, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
FILE - Michoacán State Governor Alfredo Ramirez Bedolla, left, and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum attend a presentation of the new security strategy against violence for the state of Michoacan, at the National Palace in Mexico City, Nov. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Claudia Rosel, File)
