Former Eagle Mark Sanchez faces felony charges in Indianapolis
Former Eagles QB Mark Sanchez faces felony charges after being stabbed, arrested in Indianapolis
Former Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Mark Sanchez is now facing felony charges for his role in an altercation that led him being stabbed early Saturday morning.
According to police, the dispute between Sanchez and a 69-year-old truck driver began over a parking space.
“You have the allegations of a 38-year-old man becoming involved in an altercation with a 69-year-old man who sustained significant, very severe injuries as a result of that altercation,” Said Ryan Mears, a Marion County, Indiana, prosecutor. ” … We are literally talking about people fighting over a parking space and/or a dispute about where people are parking, and it resulted in someone just incredibly significant injuries.”
Sanchez was in Indianapolis to work as an analyst on FOX Sports’ broadcast of the Indianapolis Colts game against the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday. An affidavit seen by CNN said that Sanchez was initially taken to a local hospital in a critical condition in the early hours of Saturday morning. FOX Sports reported Saturday afternoon that Sanchez was in stable condition.
Mears said Monday that an additional police investigation led a more severe charge for Sanchez;. who had initially been charged with three misdemeanors as a part of the incident. Sanchez now faces a charge of felony battery involving serious bodily injury, which carries a maximum sentence of between one and six years in prison.
Sanchez claimed to police that he barely remembered anything from the incident, and that he did not know who it involved or where it happened.
Mears stated an updated affidavit was submitted by police that contained more details which subsequently led to the felony charge. CNN Sports has reached out to Indianapolis police regarding the updated affidavit.
According to police, Sanchez allegedly approached the 69-year-old man, who works for a company which exchanges commercial frying oil, in a loading dock area of a hotel and escalated a dispute regarding the man’s parked vehicle. Detectives reviewed surveillance footage from the Indianapolis Marriott Downtown, which captured the incident and showed Sanchez approaching the man’s truck and beginning a conversation, the affidavit said.
He also said that Sanchez had climbed up into the cab of the truck despite the man insisting he should not enter. The footage reviewed by detectives showed Sanchez grabbing the man and throwing him up against a wall.
The man told detectives that he pepper sprayed Sanchez and, when Sanchez continued to advance towards him, the man pulled out his knife and struck Sanchez several times.
Prosecutors have lots of video evidence regarding the incident, Mears said Monday. That evidence could lead to more charges down the line.
“Where this incident took place was an area of the city which was very well covered by surveillance footage,” the prosecutor said. “There are multiple angles of surveillance footage which capture the events that occurred. And in addition, we had a number of civilian witnesses who came forward with provided information about what took place for us, though we need additional information, and chief’s team is working on that.
“And once we receive that additional information, additional charges might be appropriate to file in a case like this.”
Sanchez played two years for the Eagles as the backup quarterback to Nick Foles.
This is a developing story, please check back for updates. Information from this article was sourced from 6abc Philadelphia
