The reason Detroit Lions cornerback Aaron Berry was arrested early Saturday morning is because he allegedly pointed a gun at three people. He was in turn charged with three misdemeanor counts of simple assault by physical menace.
If you read the account of the incident from the Miami Dolphins fan who was allegedly one of the victims, you already know what supposedly happened. According to the account, the car Berry was in nearly hit three men crossing the street. The men yelled to get the driver's attention so they wouldn't get hit, and it was at this point that Berry allegedly pulled out a gun and pointed it at them. Here are the exact details of what happened, according to police, as reported by the Detroit Free Press:
"They jumped out of the street, the back window came down and a person that they described as Aaron Berry pointed a handgun with a laser sight at them and then pulled off," Muldrow said. "We located the weapon. The weapon was in close proximity to him if not on him – that I can’t confirm whether he actually had it on his person – but it was in the vehicle and it was registered to him. It was his weapon and it was the only weapon in the vehicle described by the independent witnesses who did not know who he was or anything about him."
The obvious disclaimer is that this is only one side of the story, and it's important to note that Berry is charged with only pointing the gun at the group of men. However, it takes some extremely bad judgment to point a gun at a random group of people, especially when you're on thin ice already after being arrested within the past month for a DUI. We don't know the exact circumstances that led up to Berry allegedly pointing a gun at the group of men, but unless he and the people in the car with him were being threatened, there's no excuse for it.
Corky Goldstein, Berry's lawyer, told the Free Press that Berry has a legal permit to carry a revolver. However, even Goldstein didn't know the full story as of the time he spoke to the Free Press. The reason? Goldstein said Berry is "very, very upset and not in a mood to talk to me." Yeah, that's a great sign.
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