NFL's Washington Redskins kick-punt returner Brandon Banks (pictured above) and a companion were stabbed outside of a D.C.-area nightclub Saturday night, following a heated argument with a male suspect.
Washington Redskins Kick Returner Brandon Banks Stabbed: MyFoxDC.com
Banks, who just completed his rookie season with the Redskins, was standing outside The Park nightclub at about 3:00 a.m. with his boyhood friend Christopher Nixon.
Nixon was first approached by Jason D. Shorter and a violent verbal exchange allegedly escalated to a physical altercation. Banks, who had walked away when he and Nixon first stepped outside the club, immediately ran back to assist his friend when he heard the commotion. Eyewitnesses state that Shorter attacked both Banks and Nixon with a pocket knife, slashing at them wildly.
Twenty-three-year-old Banks was stabbed in the upper left abdomen. Nixon was slashed across the face and throughout his body several times.
Banks was treated and released on Sunday, but Nixon had to undergo surgery and is listed in critical condition.
Shorter was arrested and initially charged by D.C. police with assault with the intent to kill, but the U.S. Attorney's office later charged him with a lesser crime of assault with a dangerous weapon.
Banks was not the only Redskins player who had a brush with the law this past weekend. Redkins defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth (pictured below) has been formally charged with misdemeanor assault, stemming from a road rage encounter. Haynesworth and his attorney appeared at a police station Saturday morning to sign a summons warrant charging him with assault.
According to the Fairfax County police, the 29-year-old is being accused of tailgating a 38-year-old driver with his pick-up truck. The accuser was driving a Honda Civic and he used a "non-verbal hand gesture" to the man who had been allegedly tailgating him.
Haynesworth and the unidentified driver stopped their vehicles at an intersection, got out and began to argue. The driver told police that the NFL player, who has been often referred to as "potentially a brutal run-stopper," punched him right in the face.
Haynesworth's attorney is claiming that his client is innocent and that the accuser just wants a big pay day.
Ironically, Haynesworth was involved in a few other driving-related incidents. In May 2006, arrest warrants were issued against Haynesworth in two Tennessee counties but dropped a month later. Three years later, he was indicted on two misdemeanor traffic charges stemming from a car accident that left another driver, Corey Edmondson, partially paralyzed after Haynesworth was driving his Ferrari at speeds in excess of 100 mph. Edmonson later sued.