The Brief
-
Former Arizona Cardinals linebacker Wesley Leasy was ordered by police at gunpoint to get down on the ground while picking up his daughter from Sky Harbor Airport.
-
Leasy says he and his daughter are still processing what transpired.
-
Police say they mistook Leasy as a suspect in a murder in Mesa who was driving a similar vehicle.
PHOENIX – Intense moments for a former Arizona Cardinals football player and his daughter who were ordered to get down on the ground by police at gunpoint at Sky Harbor Airport.
“It’s a lot of cops there. I mean 15 to 20 cops are there and they all have their – I’m not a gun guy – machine guns, semi-automatic weapons. All of them have these weapons out and they’re pointing at us,” said Wesley Leasy, who played for the Cardinals from 1995 to 96.
What we know
This happened earlier in April.
Police say they were tracking a suspect wanted for a murder in Mesa.
Police body cam video shows it all playing out.
Leasy said he was just picking up his daughter from the airport when police surrounded him, demanding both of them to get on the ground.
Investigators say Leasy was driving a vehicle that matched the suspect’s vehicle description: a white Mercedes with a temporary license plate.
They cornered him at the airport.
Watch FOX 10 Phoenix live:
What they’re saying
Leasy says the whole ordeal left him and his daughter pretty shaken up.
“She was there,” Leasy said. “I mean she saw, first-of-all, her life being in danger and my life being endangered has been horrifying for her. Traumatic, and now, as a dad, you’re trying to comfort her and trying to help her realize what happened, what transpired, and we still don’t understand. She’s still, and I don’t, we still don’t know what happened.”
Leasy was detained and later released after officers determined he was not the suspect they were looking for.
We’re told a description of the shooter was not relayed to officers, who identified him as a white man.