The Las Vegas Raiders on Monday waived cornerback Damon Arnette after a video surfaced reportedly showing him with a gun and threatening to kill someone in a social media-style post, the team’s general manager said.
General Manager Mike Mayock in a conference call called the conduct unacceptable.
“There have been a series of bad decisions over the last year or so,” Mayock said. “But we can’t stand — we cannot stand for the video of Damon with a gun threatening to take a life.”
Mayock did not specify other incidents, but Arnette is also being sued in an alleged October 2020 hit-and-run crash, NBC affiliate KSNV of Las Vegas reported.
Arnette, 25, was a 2020 first-round draft pick and he was in his second season with the team.
A social media post recently appeared to show Arnette by himself saying he’d kill someone, displaying a firearm in a selfie-style video.
A spokesperson for the Raiders did not immediately return a request for comment or confirmation that is the video to which Mayock referred.
The move comes a week after the team released another 2020 first-round draft pick, wide receiver Henry Ruggs III, after Ruggs allegedly killed a woman in a DUI crash.
Ruggs is accused of driving 156 mph and with a blood-alcohol level of .161 before slamming his car into the rear of a Toyota Rav4 early Tuesday, killing Tina Tintor, 23.
The Raiders selected Arnette, who in college played for Ohio State, with the 19th pick in the first round of the 2020 draft.
Mayock said Monday that the team had had significant concerns about Arnette, but it was felt “that we’d be able to work with this young man, and not only help him on the football field but help him in his life.”
“And you know, obviously in hindsight we weren’t able to do it,” Mayock said.
Attempts to reach Arnette’s agent were not immediately successful Monday night.