Former National Football League (NFL) player Glenn Foster Jr, died two days after he was taken into police custody, and now Alabama state authorities are investigating his death.
According to a statement from the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA), the former New Orleans Saints player died Monday at a medical facility in western Alabama, reported CNN.
Chief Richard Black of the Reform Police Department told NOLA.com that the 31-year-old was arrested Saturday after cops saw him driving up to 90 miles per hour (mph) in a 45-mph zone. Black said that before Foster's arrest, there was a high-speed car chase, and police force of neighboring town of Gordo also joined the chase.
Black said that Foster was slowed down when police placed a “spike strip” across the road that flattened all four of his tires. He later climbed a curb and crashed into a business then he engaged in a “small, minor tussle” with cops, but nobody seemed to have got hurt, and then he was handcuffed, said Black.
Black added that he was concerned about Foster’s erratic behavior, and he spoke to his parents Saturday to make arrangements to bail him out of prison and transfer him to a hospital for evaluation. Foster’s father, Glenn Foster Sr., said that when his son was around 20, he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, but had mostly been able to manage it before he was arrested. On Sunday, his family arrived in Reform, and Black said that a judge allowed the family to post a $500 cash bail for his release, but Foster had to go to a hospital as discussed.
Black said that the family and the police chief arrived at the prison the same day and arrangements were made at the hospital to admit Foster, but “something happened" when they were waiting in the sallyport to get Foster.
Foster Sr. said that he noticed an ambulance pull up, but he was told it wasn’t for his son. It was there because his son had fought with two guards and another detainee.
After the bail was paid on the traffic misdemeanors, Foster was re-booked by the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office on one felony count of third-degree battery and three of assault. When the situation worsened, the jail was holding him without bail on those extra charges. Black reportedly told Foster’s dad that the chief followed sheriff’s deputies as they drove him in a patrol cruiser to a hospital that wasn’t too far from the jail, instead of the facility in Birmingham that was originally planned. Foster Sr. said that his son was declared dead when he reached at the hospital.
Death of Foster, who was forging careers as a business owner in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, and in the NFL while balancing a decade-old bipolar diagnosis, remained under investigation Tuesday.
On Wednesday, the Pickens County Coroner refused to reveal the cause of death. Coroner Chad Harless said that they are referring all questions and comments to ALEA, which is the lead investigator in Foster's death. According to ALEA, his body was given to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences for further investigation, and once complete, the findings will be "turned over to the Tuscaloosa County District Attorney's Office."
The New Orleans Saints expressed their condolences on the death of Foster.
We send our heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of former Saint Glenn Foster _ pic.twitter.com/2U7YnA8rTI
— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) December 8, 2021
He played as a defensive end for the New Orleans Saints in 2013 and for part of the 2014 season, and the team sent their "heartfelt condolences" to the athlete's family and friends following his death.
