Baltimore Ravens safety Earl Thomas III was held at gunpoint by his wife in a violent standoff last month over an alleged affair, according to an arrest warrant.
The Austin Police Department responded to a call about a domestic disturbance April 13 at 3:41 a.m.
The incident was first reported by TMZ Sports.
When police arrived, they observed a woman with a knife in her hand chasing a shirtless black man with a pistol in his hand around a car, police said. The woman and man were later identified as Nina and Earl Thomas. Police drew their weapons, ordered them to the ground and told them to drop their weapons. According to police, they complied.
The seven-time Pro Bowler, who turned 31 Thursday, told police he had been “romantically involved” with a woman he was with at the rental home and that he was working on his relationship with his wife, the arrest warrant states. Earl said he left the rental home on the morning of April 12 to go home, where he got into an argument with Nina about him drinking too much alcohol.
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He said he called his brother, Seth Thomas, to pick him up and returned to the rental home, where they stayed with two women. He said he was in bed with one of the women when he awoke to “the sound of screaming” sometime between 12:45 and 1 a.m. His wife and two other women, Seth’s ex Camisha Garlow and Nina’s sister, Kayla Baham-Heisser, came into the bedroom he was in and Nina pointed a black pistol at him, the affidavit states. Earl said he grappled with Nina in the hallway for the gun and that she began hitting him in his body. He said he was able to take the gun and yelled for his mistress to call police, according to the affidavit.
Nina corroborated Earl’s account that he was picked up from their home by his brother after they argued. Nina said she became suspicious of Earl and logged into his Snapchat account, where she said she found several videos of him with another woman.
Nina used Earl’s Snapchat account to track his whereabouts to a nearby Airbnb rental home and said she enlisted the help of Garlow and Baham-Heisser to confront him there. She also said she took Earl’s pistol and planned to “scare him” with it when she confronted him.
When Nina arrived at the house, she discovered “Earl and Seth naked in bed with other women,” the affidavit states. She said she removed the magazine thinking that the gun could not fire. She admitted to putting the gun to Earl’s head with the intent to scare him and to disengaging the safety, but was unaware the gun had a round in the chamber, according to the affidavit.
Video footage of the incident recorded by Baham-Heisser on her cell phone showed Nina had held the pistol less than a foot from Earl’s head, the affidavit states. The video also shows Seth attempting to restrain Garlow from assaulting the woman he was dating. Baham-Heisser said she knew Nina was bringing a pistol to confront Earl but she thought the gun was unloaded because Nina removed the magazine, according to the affidavit. She also said she accompanied Nina to make sure that nothing got “out of hand.”
Earl’s mistress told police Nina threatened her and and the other woman at the rental home, according to the affidavit, which says Nina pointed the gun at them and yelled, “I got something for all you hoes.”
Nina was arrested for burglary of a residence with intent to commit aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Garlow and Baham-Heisser were arrested for burglary of a residence. Nina was booked for burglary of a residence with intent to commit aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. They were released on bond.
Nina shared a news release in a since-deleted Instagram post Thursday morning attributed to her attorney, Jonathan Goins, who said she had been wrongfully arrested. Goins said they had already gathered information that “controverts every single allegation made on the night in question” and that they were cooperating with the Travis County district attorney’s office. The news release said the couple have been married for four years and have three young children together.
In an Instagram video posted before TMZ’s report was published, Earl said his agent had told him about the outlet’s impending coverage.
“So my agent just hit me and said that I’m going to be on TMZ tomorrow from an altercation that happened with me and Nina,” Thomas said. “Just wanted to get ahead of it. It’s really not anybody’s business. It pisses me off that it got out, but it’s the world we live in today.”
The Super Bowl XLVIII champ with Seattle in 2014 said that instead of talking about him and his wife, “keep us in y’all’s prayers.”
“Stuff like this happens, bro. We try to live the best lives we possibly can, but sometimes it don’t go as planned,” he said. “Just pray for us as we go through this stuff. We’re back talking, I’m seeing my kids, so just keep us in your prayers.”
