Former NFL wide receiver Antonio Brown pleaded guilty to aggravated assault with a firearm and received three years of probation for a 2025 shooting outside a celebrity boxing event in Miami.
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Former NFL wide receiver Antonio Brown pleaded guilty on Friday in Miami state court to aggravated assault with a firearm tied to a 2025 shooting outside a celebrity boxing match.
Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez sentenced Brown to three years of probation. Court conditions include weekly counselling sessions and a requirement that he not possess a firearm.
According to the court proceedings, prosecutors sought the reduced plea after raising a question about whether Brown was actually attempting to shoot the victim, who was walking away from an altercation at the time. The victim, Zul-Qarnain Kwame Nantambu, was in court and has said publicly that he would not cooperate with police and did not want to press charges.
The judge asked Brown to speak up as he entered his guilty plea. Outside the courtroom, Brown thanked God and said he wanted to “get back to life” and his family.
Brown had been initially charged with attempted murder after police said he grabbed a handgun from a security staffer at the event and fired two shots at a man he had been in a fistfight with earlier. Florida’s Stand Your Ground law was cited in connection with the claim of self-defence.
Prosecutor Howard Rosen told the court that his office pursued the reduction so the case would not be dismissed without an opportunity for Brown to receive treatment, noting both sides came together on what Rosen said was in the best interest of everyone.
Brown’s lawyer, Mark Eiglarsh, said the offer was something his client “couldn’t refuse,” and he characterized probation as a favourable outcome compared with facing decades in prison.
Rosen’s account indicated the victim was grazed in the neck. Nantambu has previously said he has forgiven Brown.
Brown, 38, spent 12 years in the NFL, most of them with the Pittsburgh Steelers, and won a Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2021 while playing for quarterback Tom Brady. In the following season, he left the field during a game and was released by the Buccaneers after the incident.
Brown has also faced other legal issues in recent years, including accusations of battery and several domestic violence charges, as well as failure to pay child support.
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