(StraightNews.org) – Former NFL and Super Bowl Champion Derrick Ward has been arrested for robbery and held on $250,000 bail. The 43-year-old allegedly robbed several Southern California businesses, including gas stations, but police say he did not use a firearm to carry out the robberies. Listed as weighing 230 pounds with a 6 ft tall frame, officers said he used “force and fear” to rob at least five establishments.
Ward is best known for spending five seasons with the New York Giants, including in 2007, when the Giants defeated the Patriots in a surprise Super Bowl victory. Alongside Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw, Ward was part of the Giants’s backfield that was later dubbed “Earth, Wind and Fire.” The following year, he signed a $17 million contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he spent one season before moving on to the Texans. He retired in 2011 at the age of 31.
Media reports say that Ward targeted a Shell gas station in Studio City on December 18, but detectives would not say how they tracked him down following that incident. They did state that they believe it was the final robbery of a month-long crime spree.
A worker at the AM PM gas station in Studio City said the robber entered the store and asked for a pack of gum. When he opened the register for the transaction, the robber put his hand behind the counter and took the cash.
On the same day the story broke about Derrick Ward, law enforcement officers in Las Vegas announced the arrest of basketball star Chance Comanche, who played briefly for the Portland Trail Blazers in the NBA. The FBI arrested Comanche and his girlfriend Sakari Harnden for the murder of Marayna Rodgers, whose body was found in the desert just outside Vegas.
A motive for the killing, or any further details, are unclear, but Comanche and his girlfriend were arrested in Sacramento and charged with murder, attempted murder, and kidnapping.
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