A’s catcher Bruce Maxwell arrested on gun charge

Oakland Athletics catcher Bruce Maxwell was arrested Saturday evening in Scottsdale, Arizona, on suspicion of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and disorderly conduct, according to TMZ.com. Kurt Chirbas of NBC News tweeted out a statement from Scottsdale PD:

We can confirm that Bruce Maxwell was arrested today at 1808 hours at his Scottsdale residence. We responded to his residence reference a subject with a gun call. The victim in this case was a food delivery person who stated that he pointed a gun at her. He was booked on charges of Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon and Disorderly Conduct. He was held in-custody awaiting his Initial Appearance. No further details are available at this time.

An arrest for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon is extremely serious, of course, though we’ll have to wait and see for more details on what allegedly transpired from both the police and from Maxwell, as well as whether the local district attorney proceeds with bringing the criminal charge. The police, the alleged victim, and Maxwell may have more to say in the coming days about what did or did not happen.

The A’s released a statement Sunday morning:

We were disappointed to learn of the allegations. We take this situation and ongoing investigation seriously. We are gathering information from the proper authorities and do not have further comment at this time.

Maxwell became nationally recognized in September for being the first Major League Baseball player to kneel for the National Anthem, joining protests in other sports leagues that are attempting to focus attention to racial injustices and police brutality in the United States. Maxwell recently stated that he was initially refused service at an Alabama restaurant because of that recognition, an allegation disputed by the server and manager of that day.

Some words of caution

At this point I have concerns for us as fans that repeat themselves when this sort of thing comes up across other fanbases. First, the alleged victim does not owe anybody a direct statement to the public. She did not choose to allegedly have a gun pointed at her by a famous person. Her statements to police are of primary concern to Maxwell, not to Maxwell’s fans, and his legal team will have ample opportunity to review them and dispute or concede her version of events.

Second, even if local authorities don’t move forward with a criminal charge, it does not mean that a crime didn’t happen. It merely means that, at this time, authorities do not believe they can prove a crime occurred beyond any reasonable doubt.

And third, we just don’t know what happened or really what anybody thinks happened. We have these scant details from the alleged victim relayed by police, but we don’t know what leads Maxwell to allegedly point a gun at a food delivery person, and if it did happen whether Maxwell felt he was justified in doing so, and if he felt justified whether that was a reasonable justification, and I could go on and on about every hypothetical.

What the A’s do going forward will be informed by how the facts develop, but I can neither begin to guess what precisely those facts are nor how the club might respond. MLB will no doubt run its own inquiry at some point. But for now, I preach patience over idle speculation.