The Glendale, Colorado Police Department announced in a press release (via Twitter) that it has concluded its investigation and will not charge Ja Morant with a crime due to a lack of “available evidence.”
“GPD was not able to determine that probable cause existed for the filing of any charges. … The investigation also concluded that no one was threatened or menaced with the firearm and in fact no firearm was ever located. Although the video was concerning enough to prompt an investigation, there was not enough available evidence to charge anyone with a crime,” per the statement.
Police were investigating the Grizzlies star for an incident that took place over the weekend in which Morant appeared to waive a gun during an Instagram Live stream at a strip club in Glendale early Saturday morning. It was the latest in a string of incidents that have caused many to question Morant’s off-the-court behavior.
While it’s certainly good news for Morant that he will not be criminally charged, the NBA is still investigating the incident and it has been reported that the league is “concerned” and has been monitoring his actions for months. The 23-year-old apologized after the Grizzlies announced that he would be away from the team for at least two games, which have now been played.
However, head coach Taylor Jenkins said there’s no timetable for Morant to return to the team and it doesn’t sound like he’s planning on having him back tomorrow versus Golden State.
If the glove does not fit, you must acquit!
Hurry back, Ja. The league needs you!
Yeah man. Really need guy who fights and pulls guns on teenagers. Has his mom fight foot locker employees even tho Ja can get shoes fo free. And guys who points scopes at opposing teams personnel.
Hurry back and keep getting gifted 10 FTs a game for being fake hard.
Don’t worry this guys got his whole life to f it up and in all likelihood already has. Camera phones are a B even when you’re not filming yourself w a gun in a strip Club
“Camera phones” lol what is this 2006?
A “what is this (insert year)” joke lol what is this 2002?
The salt is real with this guy
Glad to see he wasn’t charged with anything, but he’s definitely gonna catch at least a short suspension. NBA doesn’t like it when their players make them look bad.
Hence why he’s “away from the team to work on himself”. It’s smart PR to get out ahead of a possible suspension, or avoid one altogether if the league is satisfied with the amount of time he misses.
Of course, I truly do hope he takes this seriously and gives himself a hard look in the mirror and isn’t just trying to do damage control.
That and maybe humble him a little
His only crime was loving too much
As I was explaining before, he did nothing illegal. Not sure why everyone got it out for Ja. I hope he keeps waving his gun around. Gotta keep them haters hating.
Unlawful. Ja did nothing unlawful, or against the law.
Your right to bear arms is the Law, not a legality…
Legally Ja was in violation, if the Law didn’t exist
Gun owning is illegal, but they are lawful to possess, and own.
Tough to understand if you are unaware of trust law, and lawful claims via affidavit.
Violation of what? You said a bunch of nothing.
Colorado open carry state. What you trying to say?
Colorado open carry is a legality if they created a statute governing it.
Has absolutely nothing to do with, nor does it substitute, nullify, or interfere with constitutional carry.
Colorado open carry statute (legality) only applies, and displaces the constitutional Law when it is agreed upon by 1 or more parties as a condition of contract, or conducting, or doing business in said state in a business, or commercial capacity.
I don’t know if a few commenters on Hoops rumors is “everyone” But you know better than me.
Wrong, or at least likely wrong. It is illegal in Colorado to be carrying a firearm while intoxicated. And in all likelihood, he did consume alcohol at the nightclub; common sense. Of course, without video evidence of him drinking or a BAC figure there’s no way to actually prove he was breaking the law, so there’s no case here. Still doesn’t change the fact we can reasonably guess what transpired that night.
If you’re gonna stump for Ja and call those criticizing him haters, at least get your facts straight. Otherwise, it’s just embarrassing.
In all likely hood? Why is that? Are you one of those people that think you need to drink alcohol to have a good time?
You’re just creating assumptions because you want it to be true. Stop the nonsense
Have you seen the girls in some of these clubs? he deffo gonn be drunk!!!
Joking aside, this had nothing really to do with the breaking the law, not sure on the open carry law in Col or permits that follow so I won’t say about it.
It’s about the fact you have a top athlete, whose job is to present himself as a “brand”, which they always say in the right way. And he’s setting a bad example. Don’t get me wrong I’ve done some dumb stuff, but my job ain’t to look good, draw people’s interest or set examples. This is the sorta stuff that gives the game a bad name to the soccer moms scared to take their kids to a game.
Love his game and watching him play, he just needs to grow up and remember cameras always on him….. let alone when he dumb enough to point it at himself.
A majority of people do drink alcohol, and that can generally be assumed to hold true at these types of venues. Perhaps in all likelihood was too strong of a phrase, but betting odds would favor a gun-toting individual of his age to have consumed alcohol at that place and time.
Obviously, I can’t say whether he was drinking or not with a degree of certainty. But you know what? What I don’t need to make an assumption about is Ja giving his gun Instagram time, getting into fights with minors, and causing both himself and the league issues. That is all proven. No mysteries there.
Maybe Ja didn’t break any laws, but pissing the NBA off over and over is arguably worse for an athlete in his position. Because if he keeps this up they can, will and should suspend him. Like it or not, he’s a face of the league and has certain obligations to uphold. He don’t like it? He can go play overseas. Seriously. If you want to play in the NBA, you have to follow some basic rules. And, unfortunately for Ja, star-level players get held to a higher (yet still reasonable) standard.
And don’t pretend I’m creating things out of thin air when I’ve seen you stumping for him multiple times despite the series of concerning incidents. As if whitewashing everything and pretending we’re all haters is any better. I never said a bad word about him before all of this stuff came out. And if he cleans up his act, I’m more than happy to forgive youthful exuberance.
You are making sense about the illegal part, thank you. You are correct.
There is possibly room for Morant to be eligible for a lawful, constitutional carry in this instance, but definitely was illegally in violation of any permission carry contracts from any state
I could see a similar suspension to Aroldis Chapman, no crime filed but he got suspended 30 games. 30 games is about a fifth of a MLB season. A fifth of a NBA season is about 16 games. He never shot the gun but more likely than not he brought it on the team plane (a possibility), so I can see him missing around 14-17 games
I’m genuinely curious and not attempting to be smuck… But what are you going to suspend him for? You can’t prove he brought the gun to the game or facilities. Can’t prove its his gun. I wouldn’t say he promoting gun violence by flashing it. So.. Suspending him for.. being a bad role model? I mean I Agree that is a bad look and I’m a firm believer that unless you’re in jeopardy and going to use it, it shouldn’t be flashed like a toy. But again genuinely curious, what would be the rational for suspending him? Don’t crucify me for asking lol
The real question for the NBA Brass is whether Morant brought a gun with him on the team plane. If so, then this is a completely different issue, which is addressed in the CBA. If the league finds that he did this, then they could suspend him even though no laws were broken.
They actually count private terminals as part of a federal airport. Plus Ja would be on the job, so he has by contract forgone his rights under the Law. Yeah, he is in big trouble from every angle on that one. The NBA, the feds, and the state would chew him up very quickly
I don’t really understand all the Ja apologists. At minimum, it’s not a good look for a public figure to be posting videos of himself waving a gun around at a strip club.
At a minimum, people have rights, and those rights should be protected.
The court of public opinion and the court of law are (generally…) two distinct arenas, and should be treated as such.
Unless you just prefer we punish people based on the prevailing mood of the day?
He didn’t mention “punishing” amyone. Him saying he doesn’t understand Ja apologists doesn’t mean he wants to see him get the death penalty.
His exact words were death penalty
My bad. I missed that.
Especially in the context of having multiple, more concerning off-the-court incidents in the recent past. If this were a one-time thing maybe you give him a pass, but not with a growing sample size. His apologists want to spin this just about being anti-gun hate (which it’s not).
I think Ja is intentionally cultivating a certain image on his social media. Whether for profit, attention to Memphis or ???
You can’t have police looking at club surveilance videos, come up empty, and still say Ja is involved with shady stuff. Too many people to hush, and too many cameras to spray paint in a club. This was a staged event for social media, and he was having fun (in his mind) on social media.
Thinks he’s the next Spielberg or something.
This may have been staged. The other incidents weren’t.
And the league couldn’t care less whether it was staged or not. They will suspend him to protect their own image (read: $$$) if he keeps pulling stunts like this. And they will have support from a majority of the fans.
The choice is up to him. If he’s determined to cultivate that image at all costs, he’s free to leave the NBA and do whatever he wants. Until then, he lives by the league’s rules and whims.
Some of these rich athletes like their guns and shall we also say “some like their legalized weed too”. Just lucky not to be charged…
or the evidence didn’t allow them to charge?
Police and courts like money last time I checked
I can think of three reasons he got off
We’re all very impressed lol