Earlshog
04-27-2009, 12:06 PM
NEW YORK -- Officers stunned a drunken and agitated Jayson Williams with a Taser at a swank Manhattan hotel Monday morning after reports that the troubled ex-NBA star appeared suicidal, police said.
Police were called to the hotel in Battery Park City in lower Manhattan around 4 a.m. after a report that the former New Jersey Nets star was suicidal, authorities said.
When officers arrived, there were empty bottles of prescription drugs strewn around the disheveled hotel suite of the 6-foot-9 Williams, police said.
Emergency Services Unit police, an elite team trained to deal with emotionally disturbed people, responded and stunned Williams with a Taser, handcuffed him and took him to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.
Williams played nine seasons in the NBA with the Nets and the Philadelphia 76ers before retiring in 2000.
He was convicted in 2004 of trying to cover up the shooting death of his hired driver Costas "Gus" Christofi at his mansion in Alexandria Township, N.J., in Feb. 2002.
Williams was acquitted of aggravated manslaughter, but the jury deadlocked on a reckless manslaughter count. A retrial is pending. Williams has been free on bail since the shooting.
His wife filed divorce papers this year claiming he was abusive, adulterous and had a drug problem.
Williams' manager told the Daily News of New York outside a Manhattan hospital that the athlete was on the mend.
"Jayson is doing fine. He said he was fine," Akhtar Farzaie told the newspaper. "All of us are here to be by his side as friends."
Police were called to the hotel in Battery Park City in lower Manhattan around 4 a.m. after a report that the former New Jersey Nets star was suicidal, authorities said.
When officers arrived, there were empty bottles of prescription drugs strewn around the disheveled hotel suite of the 6-foot-9 Williams, police said.
Emergency Services Unit police, an elite team trained to deal with emotionally disturbed people, responded and stunned Williams with a Taser, handcuffed him and took him to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.
Williams played nine seasons in the NBA with the Nets and the Philadelphia 76ers before retiring in 2000.
He was convicted in 2004 of trying to cover up the shooting death of his hired driver Costas "Gus" Christofi at his mansion in Alexandria Township, N.J., in Feb. 2002.
Williams was acquitted of aggravated manslaughter, but the jury deadlocked on a reckless manslaughter count. A retrial is pending. Williams has been free on bail since the shooting.
His wife filed divorce papers this year claiming he was abusive, adulterous and had a drug problem.
Williams' manager told the Daily News of New York outside a Manhattan hospital that the athlete was on the mend.
"Jayson is doing fine. He said he was fine," Akhtar Farzaie told the newspaper. "All of us are here to be by his side as friends."