Arenas Admits to Showing Guns in Practical Joke, Apologizes

Filed under: Wizards, NBA Police Blotter

After speaking with law enforcement officials Monday, Gilbert Arenas put out a statement through his attorney. In the statement, which Mike Jones has in full on his blog, the Wizards guard admits to using his firearms, which he has said he stored in his locker at the Verizon Center, during a practical joke gone awry. Arenas maintains that he never pointed the guns at or threatened anyone, and that the weapons were always unloaded.

Over the last 24 hours or so, sourced accounts of the incident, which involved Arenas and teammate Javaris Crittenton, focused on an alleged prank gone bad, in which following a gambling dispute between the Wizards Arenas laid out his guns on a chair in front of Crittenton's locker with a note which read "Pick one." Arenas's Monday apology seems to nod to this version of the confrontation, especially as Gil continues to deny he ever pointed a gun at Crittenton, as the New York Post initially reported Friday.

There's no word on whether District of Columbia prosecutors will move forward with charges, though TMZ reported early Monday that authorities planned to bring Arenas before a grand jury. D.C. has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation. Interestingly enough, Wizards fan Jack Kogod points out that Arenas's law firm, O'Melveny and Myers, assisted the District during the Supreme Court's hearing of D.C. vs. Heller, in which D.C. attempted to defend those strict gun laws under the second amendment to the U.S. Constitution. If this case does go before a jury, I imagine the Gil defense team is going to be making some points which won't quite match up with the firm's very recent arguments in Heller.

 

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Full story at http://nba.fanhouse.com/2010/01/04/arenas-admits-to-showing-guns-in-practical-joke-apologizes/