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Ex-NFL star Antonio Brown hunted by cops for attempted murder after shots were fired during brawl
Miami-Dade County police are looking to arrest troubled ex-NFL star Antonio Brown on an attempted second-degree murder charge as a result of a shooting at a boxing event last month in Florida.
If convicted, the Super Bowl winner could face up to 15 years in prison.
The Florida warrant was signed by a judge on Wednesday and lists Brown being charged with attempted murder with a firearm and states the former wide receiver is to post $10,000 bond and remain under house arrest pending a trial, according to court files provided to
A viral video from a celebrity boxing event in Miami last month showed Brown appearing to pull out a gun as he ran back towards a skirmish. Shots are then heard off camera as frightened onlookers flee the area.
The 36-year-old was dragged to the floor by a man who, it later emerged, was a member of security trying to protect him.
No victims emerged at the time, so Brown wasn't arrested. Instead when viral video of the incident surfaced online, Brown claimed he was the victim of an attempted robbery: 'Regarding the boxing event that happened last night. I was jumped by multiple individuals who tried to steal my jewelry and cause physical harm to me.'
However, the other combatant told a different story last month. That man, Zul-Qarnaįn Nantambu, instead claimed the troubled former NFL star instigated the violent incident and personally fired the shots, possibly in response to a legal battle between the two in federal bankruptcy court.
As seen in court files obtained by Daily Mail, Nantambu claimed during a 2022 encounter with Brown in Dubai that the Super Bowl winner stole a valuable pendant he had designed and produced. Nantambu further said Brown lied to police in the United Arab Emirates, accusing him of theft and resulting in Nantambu's brief imprisonment.
Nantambu sued Brown in Florida in 2022 and ultimately won a $968,960 verdict that was later vacated in 2024 before the case was dismissed. However, Nantambu is now pursuing a partial reduced judgement of $123,600 in federal bankruptcy court as Brown has continued to deny his allegations, as seen those filings.
So it came as a tremendous surprise to Nantambu in May when he noticed Brown had 'locked eyes' with him at the aforementioned Miami boxing event. Rather than discussing their dispute or ignoring his legal rival entirely, Brown immediately called over to security to falsely claim he was being jumped, Nantambu said.
'He plays gangster and plays the police at the same time, then he blames CTE,' Nantambu told Daily Mail, referencing Brown's frequent claims of traumatic brain injuries.
As Nantambu told Daily Mail, he now wonders if the retired Pittsburgh Steelers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers star called security on him to create a false pretense for Friday's shooting.
Document: According to the warrant, Brown punched Nantambu before the ex-NFL star ran for his gun
'I don't know if [Brown] premeditated a thought in his mind, like: "Okay, I'm gonna say that he tried to take my chain and I'm gonna kill him and I don't have to pay him his judgment,"' Nantambu told
'He thought he would get a free kill,' Nantambu said, referencing Florida's notorious 'Stand Your Ground' law that permits deadly force under certain heightened circumstances.
One video, provided to Daily Mail by Nantambu, shows him fighting with a group of men before an individual matching Brown's description abruptly flees. Another viral video of the incident appears to show Brown returning to the melee with a gun in hand.
'He ran to get the gun. He shot at me. I think he grazed my neck. We started fighting for the gun,' Nantambu said. 'The adrenaline is going crazy. He ran into me. I threw him on the ground. A gun fell. We start scrambling for the gun on the ground.'
It was at this point cops arrived, according to Nantambu.
'The police are screaming: "Who has the gun?"' Nantambu told 'Kids are screaming: "AB shooting! AB shooting!" He could have hit one of them kids.'
He said he put his hands in the air as frantic cops began to pursue Brown, whom Nantambu said ran inside the venue, where he was apprehended.
Despite the violent uproar, Miami police made no arrests and Brown wrote on X he's considering potential legal action against 'the individuals that jumped me.'
Meanwhile, the police apparently ignored Nantambu, who claimed to walk away from the scene with one shoe 'like Cinderella' and blood dripping from a neck wound that could have been far worse.
'I'm feeling this burning sensation on my neck,' Nantambu told 'I thank God I'm not murdered. God spared me from getting shot in the face.'
From there, Nantambu went to the hospital for the neck wound and a broken finger before flying to the Beltway the following morning for an event supporting Sudanese refugees.
An outspoken supporter of Sudan and Palestine who also works in filmmaking, fashion and music, Nantambu made national headlines in February when he was among the protestors who stormed the field during halftime at Super Bowl LIX .
But it was three years earlier, prior to a Floyd Mayweather Jr. exhibition in Dubai, that Nantambu said he first became involved with Brown.
A proud Muslim already familiar to the area, Nantambu said he arrived in Dubai in May of 2022 to discover a shirtless Brown being 'disrespectful' to customs officials at the airport.
'He was cursing them out and all that,' Nantambu said.
Nantambu was in Dubai hoping to convince Mayweather to help him promote a pendant necklace he was selling. And since Brown and Mayweather were known acquaintances, Nantambu used the bit of Arabic he speaks to help calm tensions at the airport: 'I intervened to try to quell it, because they weren't going to let him in the country.'
Brown was, perhaps, at the height of his infamy at the time. It was only a few months earlier that he ended a sideline spat with Buccaneers coaches by removing his uniform and running off the field during a game, never to play in the NFL again.
But despite Brown's well-reported personal and professional problems, Nantambu approached him as they waited for their baggage. The two began talking, and as Nantambu remembers, they ended up hanging out on a yacht with Mayweather prior to the fight.
When fight night came around, Nantambu said, he agreed to let Brown wear the pendant with disastrous consequences.
'He basically tried to steal it,' Nantambu said. 'He moved hotel rooms, left the hotel, stopped answering calls. And then when I confronted him about the pendant, he acted like he lost it.'
Nantambu said Brown gave him some of his own jewelry to hold as collateral, but later allegedly lied to police in Dubai, falsely claiming that the valuables were stolen from Brown by Nantambu.
'He told them that I stole $2million worth of jewelry from him,' said Nantambu, who has yet to get his pendant back from Brown.
Nantambu was released approximately one month later after presenting evidence to a local prosecutor that proved Brown made false claims to police, according to the court filing obtained by
Since then, Nantambu has waged a legal battle with Brown, who continues to go through bankruptcy proceedings despite boasting on a podcast in November he has 'the freedom that comes with having money.'
However, according to Nantambu, mounting debt has forced Brown to sell his jewelry collection, which he's replaced with faux gems.
'Well, first off, I know that chain is fake that he's wearing,' Nantambu said of Brown. 'He pawned all his real jewelry, the jewelry that he used to have in Dubai, like the gold Cuban-link [necklace] and the Richard Mille [watch] and the gold medallion that said "A B" - he got rid of all that.'
