Former NFL player Wesley Leasy played two seasons for the Arizona Cardinals over 1995 and 1996. He was recently wrongfully targeted as a shooting suspect. The 53-year-old former gridiron star, who makes his living as a respected Scottsdale construction company owner says he was picking up his adult daughter from the Sky Harbor Airport and that’s when things went awry.
Leasy told reporters that it was a case of mistaken identity, and before he knew it he was surrounded by authorities at gunpoint and forced to lie on the ground. This all occurred on April 10 as he circled the airport terminal in his car waiting for his daughter to return from baggage claim. Authorities were looking for a shooting suspect, and as they do all too often with people of color, claimed that Leasy’s new Mercedes matched the description of the suspect’s vehicle.
Chaos Ensues As Leasy Helps Daughter
“I greet her,” Leasy said. “I pick up her bag to put in my trunk.”
Leasy then says all he hears is yelling and chaos near him instructing him to put his hands up and get on the ground.
“It looks like machine guns are out,” Leasy said. “All these barrels, and they’re all pointed at us and he’s barking orders out.”
As many as ten officers from multiple jurisdictions appeared after following him the airport.
“I actually thought that I could die, but I actually thought that my daughter was going to get shot because she was crying hysterically,” Leasy said.
Police Helicopter Lost Sight Of Suspect
Per Mesa police, a shooting in a nearby neighborhood occurred just minutes before Leasy’s detainment. While police had the suspect being followed by helicopter they somehow lost track of the vehicle, leading to the unfortunate confrontation with Leasy and his daughter, who was also detained by police during the five-minute encounter.
“The whole thing just seemed to me … bad resources, bad communication, bad policing,” Leasy said.
He even called it “botched.”
Once apprehended the suspect was described as a white male.
Leasy Suing
The former 2022 state legislature candidate has acquired the services of civil rights attorney Benjamin Taylor who’ll represent him and his daughter in a lawsuit. Leasy wants answers and he intends to get them.
“I’d like to know how things went so bad. I want some accountability and responsibility,” Leasy said.
An apology from a Mesa police sergeant at the airport isn’t enough.
