Former NBA guard Ben Gordon arrested on weapons charge
Chicago Bulls Ben Gordon against the Toronto Raptors in 2009 at the United Center. (John Smierciak/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
STAMFORD - Former NBA guard Ben Gordon was arrested on weapons and threatening charges after he began behaving erratically in a Connecticut juice shop, police said.
The episode started just before 10 a.m. Tuesday when several 911 callers reported "a male acting aggressively and in a bizarre manner" inside a juice shop in Stamford, the city's assistant police chief, Richard Conklin, said Thursday.
The man, identified as Gordon, continued to act erratically when officers arrived and tried to take him into custody, Conklin said.
The officers eventually subdued Gordon and placed him under arrest. They found a folding knife clipped to Gordon's pocket, and a stun gun and brass knuckles in his backpack, Conklin said.
Gordon was arrested on charges including carrying a dangerous weapon, second-degree threatening and interfering with an officer.
The former basketball star, who played for the University of Connecticut before a decade-long NBA career that ended with the 2014-2015 Orlando Magic, was taken to the police detention center and then to a hospital for a mental health evaluation, Conklin said.
Gordon was released late Tuesday on $10,000 bond, he said. A message seeking comment was left with Gordon's attorney.
It's not Gordon's first brush with the law. Last October, he was charged with punching his son at New York's LaGuardia Airport. And in November, he was charged with a misdemeanor in Chicago for allegedly punching a McDonald's security guard.
This week's arrest came hours after Gordon's alma mater, UConn, defeated San Diego State University 76-59 to win the school's fifth NCAA championship. Gordon was on the UConn team that won the championship in 2004.
Tuesday, the day Gordon was arrested, was also his 40th birthday.