Justin Bannan was a fifth-round pick of the Buffalo Bills in 2002. The defensive tackle spent the first four years of his NFL career with the team. He spent 12 total years in the league also spending time with the Ravens, Broncos, Rams and Lions.
Now the 42-year-old is facing up to 50 yards in prison for the shooting of a woman in 2019. A recent story outlines how messy things have become for him, a tale which includes CTE.
Detailed by Tom Schad of USA TODAY the piece explains that the woman, Ashley Marie, an acupuncturist and a former basketball player at Colorado State University, was shot by Bannan, someone she didn’t even know. She was hit in the shoulder and survived the incident.
According to the report, Bannan was found at a picnic table near the building the incident occurred at. Bannan had claimed that the Russian Mafia was after him and hurried away from the shooting scene.
Via Schad:
The man was in his early 40s, wearing a black button-up shirt and dark jeans. He said he was sorry, but the Russian mafia was after him. He had to go.
When found, Bannan was sitting at a picnic table behind the building, allegedly with multiple handguns in bags he was carrying. He had a rolled up $20 bill that had traces of cocaine.
After being arrested, Bannan claimed he had hydrocephalus, which is fluid buildup in the brain. He also claimed that the incident was a direct result of head trauma, specifically CTE.
The story makes mention of a former teammate of Bannan with the Ravens who that said Bannan did use his own head as a sort of “battering ram” on the field. He had to even get his helmet replaced, at times, it was so beaten up.
Bannan is set to stand trial in June.
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