Sunday, September 15, 2019

Ex-NFL star charged with destroying his own restaurants after claiming hate crime

Former NFL star Edawn Coughman was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of vandalizing his own restaurants.

Coughman, 31, was reportedly discovered as the perpetrator of two attacks on local restaurants in Gwinette County, Georgia, owned by the former NFL offensive tackle.

After witnesses described an act of vandalism at one of his restaurants, Coughman was reportedly arrested in a suspicious vehicle with a crowbar and other items consistent with the crime for which he was being charged.

Police alleged that Coughman scrawled "MAGA" and racial epithets on the walls of his businesses, alleging that he was trying to collect on an insurance scam by staging a hate crime.

"It's possible he was trying to stage this as a hate crime," one investigator said. "We don't know if he was trying to get attention for this. What we do know is, if that witness had not called us and if those officers had not responded as quickly as they did, we would probably be sitting here talking about a completely different crime in which Mr. Coughman would be trying to say he's a victim."

"The case does not fit the mold of our typical criminal investigations," an official said. "So we have to look outside of the box to see how many victims we truly have."

From:  https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/ex-nfl-star-charged-with-destroying-his-own-restaurants-after-claiming-hate-crime

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