Antonio Brown’s months-long evasion of U.S. authorities ended Thursday when the former NFL star was taken into custody upon landing at Newark Liberty International Airport and placed on a flight back to Miami, where he will face an attempted murder charge tied to a late-night shooting outside a celebrity boxing event in May.
Brown, 37, had been living in Dubai while a fugitive warrant was active, according to law enforcement officials familiar with the case. Miami Police confirmed his extradition but declined to specify his precise whereabouts during the handoff. Once in Florida, he is expected to be booked into the Miami-Dade Department of Corrections and charged with attempted second-degree murder with a deadly weapon—a felony that could carry up to 15 years in prison if prosecutors secure a conviction, according to The Sun.
The charge stems from a chaotic scene outside a warehouse venue in northwest Miami-Dade around 3 a.m. on May 16, where social-media personality Adin Ross was hosting an amateur boxing card. Police raced to the area after a ShotSpotter system detected multiple gunshots, setting off a rapid response from patrol units.
An arrest warrant filed in June outlines witness accounts alleging that Brown punched a man during an argument, seized a firearm from a security guard, and fired several shots as the man tried to escape. Investigators said the alleged victim reported being struck twice and sustaining a graze wound to the neck, but he left before officers could take a full statement and later refused to cooperate.
Brown was questioned that night but released when police could not locate the alleged victim and no weapon was recovered. Video circulating on the Instagram account Only in Dade shows a frantic confrontation involving Brown near a row of parked cars, punctuated by the sound of gunfire.
Brown publicly rejected the allegations almost immediately. “I was the one who got jumped—multiple dudes tried to rob my chain and hurt me,” he wrote hours after the incident. “Police held me for a minute, heard my side, and let me go home. Never got arrested.”
He initially secured release in June on a $10,000 bond with conditions including house arrest, but he soon left the country. In a since-deleted social-media post, he taunted authorities: “I’m out the country—ain’t no more child support. Tell ya mama get a job.”
I’m out the
country
ain’t no more
Child Support
tell your mama
get a job
— AB (@AB84) June 21, 2025
His attorney argued at the time that the state’s case relied on unreliable witnesses, but Brown’s failure to appear for mandatory check-ins led to a revoked bond and an active warrant.
While abroad, the former Pittsburgh Steelers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver maintained a steady online presence, livestreaming from luxury hotels in Dubai and promoting his music and podcast ventures. Brown last played in the NFL in January 2022, when he walked off the field shirtless in the middle of a Buccaneers game in New York—a moment that effectively ended a 12-year career marked by 928 receptions, 12,291 yards, and seven Pro Bowl selections.
Brown is expected to appear before a judge in Miami as early as Friday morning.
[Read More: SWAT Team Arrests Would-Be Assassin]
