Prosecutors said officers arrested Green Bay Packers lineman Rasheed Walker on Friday morning at LaGuardia Airport after he tried to check a bag containing a handgun and ammunition.
Walker, 25, alerted an airline employee shortly before 11 a.m. that his luggage contained a locked box holding a firearm.
Port Authority police responded to Terminal C and searched the bag. Officers found a 9mm Glock pistol and 36 rounds of ammunition secured inside the locked case, according to a criminal complaint.
Arrest at airport checkpoint
Police took Walker into custody at the airport and charged him with two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and one count of criminal possession of a firearm under New York law.
He appeared later Friday in Queens County Criminal Court. The judge released him on his own recognizance.
Walker is due back in court on March 19.
Attorney says firearm was legally licensed
Walker’s attorney, Arthur Aidala, said Wisconsin had legally licensed the firearm, where the offensive lineman plays during the NFL season.
Aidala said Walker did not realise New York law prohibited him from travelling with the gun, despite storing it in a locked container.
“It was in a locked box and he disclosed it to the people at the airport,” Aidala told the New York Post.
“He told a person from Delta he was traveling with a firearm.
“He mistakenly thought because he had a licensed firearm and it was in a locked box that he was able to travel with it.”
Aidala added that the defence expects the case to be dismissed.
Packers yet to comment
Green Bay selected Walker in the seventh round of the 2022 NFL Draft. He has appeared in 27 games across three seasons as part of the offensive line rotation.
The Packers have not issued a public statement regarding the arrest. The team declined to comment when contacted.
The NFL has not commented on the matter, and the league has not announced any discipline.
For now, the case sits with the New York courts as Walker awaits his next appearance on March 19.
