ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Denver Broncos pass rusher Jonathon Cooper is in more legal trouble following his second arrest in a week.
Cooper was arrested Thursday night on multiple charges that he violated a protection order filed against him after his initial arrest stemming from a domestic dispute with his girlfriend last week.
Cooper is now facing new charges of harassment from repeated phone calls and violation of a protection order, according to court records.
The protection order was put in place for Cooper's girlfriend after two additional charges, including a felony charge of second-degree assault by strangulation, were added Wednesday from his June 4 arrest in Parker.
Aside from his legal troubles, Cooper could face a lengthy suspension from the league.
NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told The Associated Press on Friday, “We continue to monitor all developments in the matter which remains under review of the personal conduct policy.”
The Broncos also issued a statement to AP, saying, “We are disappointed to learn of Jonathon Cooper's arrest on Thursday and continue to review this matter.”
Cooper is accused of sending 20 messages and making two unanswered phone calls to his girlfriend Thursday before going to her apartment and knocking on her door, according to the arrest affidavit. He left when she called 911. Cooper told officers who went to his residence later Thursday that he had not been served with a protection order.
Cooper was ordered during an appearance in the 23rd Judicial District Court in Douglas County on Friday to abide by a stricter protection order that prohibits any contact with his girlfriend. Also, he must have court approval to travel out of state. He was released on a personal recognizance bond.
Cooper originally faced misdemeanor domestic violence charges and pleaded not guilty Monday in a Douglas County courtroom. Additional charges were announced in court Wednesday, including felony assault by strangulation and third-degree assault of knowingly or recklessly causing bodily injury.
The new charges stemmed from a forensic nurse's examination of Cooper's girlfriend at a hospital during which the nurse wrote that the woman experienced an injury from being choked that led to a “substantial risk of death” or substantial risk of injury, including the possibility of a traumatic brain injury, according to court records.
Cooper, 28, was originally arrested June 4 by Parker police along with his girlfriend, and both were booked into jail early that next morning. Cooper was held on suspicion of criminal mischief with a domestic violence enhancer. His girlfriend was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor domestic violence and petty criminal mischief.
The arrests followed an argument and physical confrontation between Cooper and his girlfriend over cell phones that were damaged in the scuffle after she accused him of infidelity, according to a police affidavit.
Last weekend, Cooper posted a Bible verse about anger on his Instagram account and wrote, “I apologize to my family and my friends and my community. ... And so many others.” He added, “I realize positing a bible (verse) after something very serious happens does not just mean everything is okay.” In another post, Cooper wrote, “I apologize. This situation is not who I am.”
A seventh-round draft pick out of Ohio State in 2021, Cooper is entering his sixth season with the Broncos. He’s had at least eight sacks in each of the last three seasons, including a career-best 10 1/2 sacks in 2024 when he signed a four-year contract extension worth up to $60 million.
Cooper has a motions hearings set for July 6 on his original arrest and July 14 on his latest arrest, in addition to a trial set to begin July 22, just before the Broncos report to training camp.
Cooper has been participating in the Broncos' offseason training program and on Thursday coach Sean Payton said he had a talk with Cooper about his arrest. "We’ll follow the league’s guidelines, and I’m sure a lot of that will be led by the local authorities’ guidelines. We’ll pay attention to all of it,” Payton said.
The Broncos hold their mandatory minicamp next week before their summer break.
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FILE - Denver Broncos' Jonathon Cooper speaks to the media at NFL football practice at Tottenham Hotspur training ground in London, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)
Firefighters responding to a blaze that destroyed a massive medical equipment warehouse in Northern California and sent embers flying for miles were hindered by sprinklers and hydrants that weren't working, authorities said Friday.
The 1 million-square-foot (93,000-square-meter) warehouse in Tracy, a city about 55 miles (88.5 kilometers) east of San Francisco, supplied medical equipment to area hospitals. It's owned by Medline, a major medical-surgical products provider of equipment such as latex gloves, masks, surgical instruments and other medical supplies.
Thick black smoke billowed Friday from the site, as firefighters continued to put out hot spots.
Authorities said they don’t yet know why the water system failed during the blaze but it appeared to be a problem with the facility’s system, not city supply.
Local fire codes generally require large warehouses to have hydrants and sprinklers and ensure both are functioning, said Brian O'Connor, a licensed fire protection engineer with the National Fire Protection Association.
“If you have a large facility, it can be difficult for firefighters to stretch a hose from the closest public hydrant to the building,” he said.
Crews responding to the blaze that broke out around 1 p.m. Thursday encountered flames on the roof and noticed no water coming out of sprinklers in the building, Tracy Deputy Fire Chief Brian Bagley said. A fire official found a pump was pushing little to no water through both the sprinklers and on-site hydrants, he said.
Firefighters were forced to try to connect to city hydrants instead. The building was engulfed by fire within 40 minutes, Bagley said.
"It’s very, very challenging,” Bagley told reporters. “You can imagine it's a skyscraper laying on its side.”
The facility had been evacuated, and no one was injured. The massive warehouse was one of more than 50 distribution centers across the country for Medline, which according to its online catalog sells bandages, wheelchairs, catheters, hospital beds and many other medical supplies.
It is not clear what exactly was stored at the Tracy warehouse but the company said in a statement that the facility was mainly serving Northern California hospitals and that following the fire, it activated a contingency plan.
“Product distribution previously supported by the Tracy facility has been reassigned and it is in the process of being deployed to other facilities within our regional network to help maintain service and support customer needs,” Medline said.
Bagley said crews on Friday were trying to give drivers access to the property to remove trailers loaded with medical equipment that were not affected by the fire.
Mary Massey, who is in charge of the hospital preparedness program at the California Hospital Association, said it was too early to know the impact on medical supplies for regional hospitals but that most medical service providers have cooperation agreements to get urgent supplies if needed.
“We write plans for these kinds of things and we work together, not just hospitals, but also clinics, long-term care, dialysis, public health, ambulances. We all work together,” she said.
Embers from the blaze sparked two grass fires, and set pallets and multiple big rig trailers at a nearby FedEx facility ablaze. Firefighters were able to knock those fires down.
Crews overnight had to contend with new fires in trailers that were loaded with supplies.
Bagley said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives would help investigate the cause of the blaze, but authorities would probably not be able to get into the warehouse for at least a couple of more days. The sprinkler system had been tested in January by an outside company and no issues were found, Bagley said.
Fire officials were still working on Friday to gather additional information about inspections of the warehouse's water systems, said Nicole Boswell, a spokesperson for the fire department. She said local fire officials also conduct annual inspections of businesses, including their water systems, but she did not know what the fire department found during their recent inspection of the warehouse.
The warehouse is in a massive industrial park that also houses fulfillment and distribution centers for Amazon, Home Depot and FedEx.
No homes were evacuated. Bagley recommended people near the fire stay indoors but said air quality tests had not raised any “grave concerns.”
Smoke is seen from the massive fire at the Medline medical supply warehouse a million-foot facility, in Tracy, Calif., Friday, June 12, 2026. (Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
Livermore Mayor John Marchand takes a photo of smoke from a medical supply warehouse fire in Tracy, Calif., as seen from Livermore on Thursday, June 11, 2026. (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
Smoke is seen from the massive fire at the Medline medical supply warehouse in Tracy, Calif., Friday, June 12, 2026. (Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
Smoke from a medical supply warehouse fire in Tracy, Calif., is seen from Livermore on Thursday, June 11, 2026. (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
This image from aerial video shows black smoke pouring into the sky from a fire at a medical equipment warehouse in Tracy, Calif., Thursday, June 11, 2026. (KGO via AP)
