Former Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Henry Ruggs III was involved in a fatal car crash on the morning of Nov. 2. He stands accused of driving intoxicated at speeds up to 156 mph in the lead-up to the accident.
Ruggs’ Chevrolet Corvette, which was carrying him and his girlfriend, collided with a Toyota Rav4 transporting Las Vegas woman Tina Tintor and her dog. The latter two perished in the crash, the former two survived.
After initially being charged with DUI resulting in death and reckless driving, this past week Ruggs was hit with additional felony DUI and reckless driving charges and a misdemeanor charge for possession of a firearm while intoxicated.
Shortly thereafter, a troubling twist in this case emerged.
According to AJ McDougall of the Daily Beast, Ruggs’ attorneys suggested in their court filing that the firefighters from the Clark County did not extinguish the flames from the accident quickly enough.
Specifically, they wrote “firemen did not attempt to extinguish the fire at Ms. Tintor’s vehicle for approximately 20 minutes at which time the entire vehicle was engulfed in flames” and that they had been “in a position to extinguish the vehicle fire while it was in its infancy stages and failed to do so.”
County spokesperson Erik Pappa responded to this by saying that there were “no delays in response or in the attack on the fire,” and that “the vehicle was fully involved in fire upon [first responders’] arrival.”
Over the past couple of weeks various accounts of Ruggs’ night in the lead-up to the accident have emerged. Everything from precisely how much alcohol he allegedly consumed to the text messages he had sent out to video of how he was driving just seconds before the crash.
That’s one way to do it. https://t.co/ZtCs3UUs3P
— Game 7 (@game7__) November 11, 2021
All of it paints a fairly troubling picture.
If convicted, Ruggs faces more than 50 years in prison. He is currently out on $150,000 bail and is on house arrest with strict rules including four-times-per-day alcohol checks while the case plays out in court.
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A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
