Atlanta Braves outfielder Marcell Ozuna was arrested on Saturday on felony assault charges. He initially stood accused of choking his wife and throwing her against a wall.
On Sunday, additional troubling details regarding the alleged incident emerged.
According to an affidavit obtained by WSB-TV in Atlanta, Ozuna’s wife “told police that she and her husband were having an argument over infidelity before he choked her and threw her against a wall.”
Ozuna’s wife further told authorities that she was mid-shower when her husband came into the bathroom, took both of her cellphones and refused to give them back after she confronted him.
“He threatened to kill her and she threatened to call 911,” the affidavit said. “She took his cellphone from a table and called 911.”
The affidavit then went into grislier details.
“She told the 911 operator that said accused was coming back and grabbed a large kitchen knife from a drawer,” it read. “Accused re-entered the house via the garage door and into the kitchen where she was. He continued to yell and verbally abuse her. Therefore, said accused held the knife by her hip and warned said accused that if he got closer, she was going to hurt him.”
Ozuna’s wife’s then reportedly attempted to retrieve her phones once more, but failed.
“Accused then brought his hand down and punched her in the back of the hands with the cellphones (that he held in his right hand),” according to the affidavit.
“Accused then pushed his left hand and forearm (which was in a hard cast) against victim’s face pushing her back and mushing her in the face with it several times.”
Things only got worse from there.
“Victim stated that said accused grabbed her by her throat by wrapping his fingers around,” an investigator wrote in an arrest affidavit. “He then held her up against the wall, preventing her from breathing.”
The alleged assault is said to have ended as soon as police arrived.
It remains to be seen how Ozuna’s team and, ultimately, Major League Baseball, respond to this incident.
The Braves placed Ozuna on the injured list a few days ago with two broken fingers from a wayward slide. The 9-year veteran recently re-signed with Atlanta after a 2020 season in which he finished sixth in National League MVP voting.
The MLB will almost certainly place Ozuna on the restricted list over this incident. From there, time will tell on how things will advance.
Ayesha knows how to stay in the news https://t.co/shn4dxsmTZ
— Game 7 (@game7__) May 27, 2021
This obviously isn’t the first terrible domestic abuse case to rock the sports world in recent months, though they’ve largely eluded the MLB.
One especially brutal one occurred in the NFL a little while ago. Prior to that, troubling photos of what a retired NFL star did to his better half also surfaced – sparking an important discussion about the treatment of women in society. And then there was a stunning case of a former LA Laker who allegedly brutalized his girlfriend.
How will this particular situation be looked upon in the coming weeks and months? A lot of it depends on how the investigation proceeds. But at the moment, things don’t appear to be trending in a great direction.
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Jennifer Withers Hoey is a former Business Development Manager who transitioned to writing about sports. With valuable connections all over the West Coast, she has used those contacts to break some of the most interesting stories pertaining to the Portland Trail Blazers, Oregon Ducks, LA Lakers, LA Clippers, Seattle Supersonics (RIP), and more.
