Incognito arrested for threats to funeral home staff

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ.» Former NFL offensive lineman Richie Incognito bonded out of an Arizona jail Tuesday after being arrested on charges he threatened to shoot employees of a funeral home a day earlier, authorities said.

Police in the Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale said Incognito had been booked on suspicion of misdemeanor charges of threats and disorderly conduct.

Incognito, 35, posted a $20,000 bond. He has an Aug. 27 pretrial conference in Scottsdale Municipal Court. It was unclear Tuesday if Incognito had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf.

Police said Incognito was at the Messinger Pinnacle Peak Mortuary on Monday to make arrangements for his father, who died last weekend.

”Incognito reportedly was upset with staff and began to damage property inside the business and shout at employees,” said Sgt. Ben Hoster, a police spokesman. “At several points during his contact with staff, Incognito threatened to retrieve guns from his vehicle and return to shoot the employees.”

A police report showed officers later executed a search warrant on Incognito’s pickup truck and seized two Glocks, three rifles and a silencer for a handgun.

The report also said Incognito’s family had told him he wasn’t going to be allowed to attend his father’s funeral and he had been acting erratically.

Witnesses at the funeral home told police that Incognito wanted them to cut his dead dad’s head off for research purposes and Incognito punched caskets, threw pamphlets around and took an urn from a shelf and slammed it down on top of a casket.

Two mortuary employees took cover in a room downstairs before police arrived and arrested Incognito.

In May, Incognito was taken into custody after he allegedly threatened a patron and employees at a Boca Raton, Fla., gym and threw weights and tennis balls at them.

He later told police officers the government was spying on him, according to a report.

He was taken into custody under Florida’s Baker Act, which allows for involuntary psychiatric commitment for people seen as a danger to themselves or others.

Incognito attended a Phoenix-area high school before playing college football at Nebraska.

Incognito announced earlier this year that he was retiring after 11 NFL seasons, the last three with the Buffalo Bills.

The four-time Pro Bowl selection was a central figure in the Miami Dolphins’ bullying scandal during the 2013 season. The NFL suspended Incognito for his alleged role in bullying teammate Jonathan Martin. He later was released by the Dolphins and was reinstated by the league the following offseason.

He was out of football for 18 months before the Bills gave him a second chance, signing him to a one-year contract.