Former Seattle Seahawks draft pick Malik McDowell is facing charges of assault, resisting arrest and operating a vehicle while intoxicated, stemming from a February incident in Michigan in which he allegedly fought with two officers after being stopped on suspicion of drunken driving, according to a police report obtained Thursday by ESPN.
McDowell also faces a separate charge from April of receiving and concealing stolen property.
McDowell, 23, appeared in Oakland County Circuit Court on Thursday for a pretrial hearing on the February incident and an arraignment in the stolen property charge, records show.
The Detroit News first reported on both cases. They come amid a lawsuit filed by the Seahawks against McDowell in late May, seeking the repayment of nearly $800,000 in forfeited signing-bonus money.
The police report from McDowell's Feb. 18 arrest in Lathrup Village, Michigan, states he was pulled over after an officer observed his Jeep Grand Cherokee speeding, spinning out and running a red light. The police report states that McDowell, who had pulled into a gas station, "had a strong odor of intoxicants emanating" from his body and refused to show the officer his driver's license while repeatedly asking for a supervisor.
The officer attempted to arrest McDowell when he walked into the gas station, where McDowell "began actively fighting" the officer, according to the report. The officer unsuccessfully attempted to subdue McDowell with a Taser.
That officer and a second officer who arrived during the incident both stated that McDowell attempted to grab their guns during separate moments of the struggle, before he was handcuffed. McDowell yelled, "Don't shoot me!" as he and the first officer were grappling, according to the report, which lists McDowell at 6-foot-6 and 300 pounds.
The second officer stated in the police report that the gas station was in "complete disarray" by the time she arrived and that "there was merchandises all over the ground." The store's manager estimated between $1,200 and $1,500 worth of damage.
According to the Detroit News, the April charge of receiving and concealing stolen property stems from an investigation into thefts of pickup trucks in a Ford Motor Co. overflow lot in Dearborn, Michigan. A GPS device inside a $74,000 Ford F-150 Raptor led officers with the Oakland County Sheriff's Department to a garage at an address listed as McDowell's. He told police he had bought the truck for $3,000 but didn't know the name of the person who sold it to him and wasn't aware that it had been stolen, according to the newspaper.
According to court records, McDowell was previously sentenced to 12 months of probation for drunken driving in Royal Oak, Michigan. The date of the offense is listed as Sept. 22, 2017, and McDowell's probation was to end March 20, 2019.
He was also arrested in December 2017 on a disorderly conduct charge stemming from an incident at an Atlanta-area nightclub.
McDowell was chosen 35th overall by Seattle out of Michigan State in 2017, but he never played for the team after suffering a head injury in an ATV accident that summer. The defensive tackle spent two seasons on the Seahawks' non-football injury list before being waived with an injury designation in March.
McDowell's agent, Drew Rosenhaus, said at the owners meetings in March that McDowell had been medically cleared by an independent doctor to resume playing football.