Antonio Brown, a former NFL player, has entered a ‘not guilty’ plea in a South Florida courtroom. Currently, he is detained in a New Jersey jail, awaiting extradition to Miami to face a second-degree attempted murder charge.

Brown is accused of discharging a firearm twice at another individual during a brawl at a boxing event in Miami this past May. Should Florida prosecutors pursue the maximum penalty, Brown could face up to 20 years in prison.

Having been extradited from Dubai, where he had been residing since the incident, Brown is now in the custody of US Marshals. Florida authorities issued a warrant for his arrest on a second-degree murder charge in June.

Brown’s attorney, Mark Eiglarsh, asserts that his client acted in self-defense during the altercation, according to a statement made public.

“I took on this case because I firmly believe in Brown’s right to self-defense,” Eiglarsh stated to the Daily Mail. “His actions were a necessary response to the alleged victim’s aggressive conduct. Brown was assaulted that night and acted lawfully to protect himself from someone who had previously committed criminal acts against him.”

‘It’s a privilege to represent him, and I am determined to ensure that justice is served.’

Brown did not fight his extradition from New Jersey to Florida when given the opportunity last week. 

Even after going into US Marshals custody, Brown’s social media accounts continued to be active, promoting various cryptocurrency websites and an online sportsbook. One Instagram post on Friday read: ‘God is good.’

Another post, written in the first person after he was taken into US Marshals custody, claimed Brown is innocent of the second-degree murder charge.

‘Handed over the keys to the socials and CTESPN to my team while I go through this fight for my innocence,’ read the post. ‘All love & respect to everyone for the support.’

‘CTESPN’ is a frequent reference Brown makes online, combining the initials for the degenerative brain disease, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, and the cable network, ESPN. Although the disease can only be diagnosed posthumously, Brown has frequently joked about suffering from the debilitating condition that many have blamed for rampant suicides among former NFL players.

Thursday’s post from Brown’s account ended with: ‘#FREEAB.’

Brown first claimed his innocence after the shooting back in May, saying he was defending himself from would-be jewel thieves in the melee.

But as Brown’s alleged target told the Daily Mail after the shooting, the former NFL star was the instigator. 

That man, Zül-Qarnaįn Nantambu, claimed the troubled former NFL star shot at him, possibly in response to a legal battle between the two in federal bankruptcy court.

As seen in court files obtained by Daily Mail, Nantambu claimed during a 2022 encounter with Brown in Dubai that the Super Bowl winner stole a valuable pendant he had designed and produced. Nantambu further said Brown lied to police in the United Arab Emirates, accusing him of theft and resulting in Nantambu’s brief imprisonment.

Nantambu sued Brown in Florida in 2022 and ultimately won a $968,960 verdict that was later vacated in 2024 before the case was dismissed. However, Nantambu has since pursued a partial reduced judgement of $123,600 in federal bankruptcy court as Brown continued to deny the allegations of theft, as seen those filings.

So it came as a tremendous surprise to Nantambu when he noticed Brown had ‘locked eyes’ with him at an Adin Ross boxing event in Miami last May. Rather than discussing their dispute or ignoring his legal rival entirely, Brown immediately called over to security to falsely claim he was being jumped, Nantambu said.

‘He plays gangster and plays the police at the same time, then he blames CTE,’ Nantambu told Daily Mail, referencing Brown’s frequent claims of traumatic brain injuries.

Nantambu was unaware of Brown’s arrest when contacted by the Daily Mail on Thursday evening. He declined to speak on the record.

But as Nantambu told Daily Mail in May, he believed the retired Pittsburgh Steelers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers star called security on him to create a false pretense for the May shooting.

‘I don’t know if [Brown] premeditated a thought in his mind, like: “Okay, I’m gonna say that he tried to take my chain and I’m gonna kill him and I don’t have to pay him his judgment,”‘ Nantambu told Daily Mail.

‘He thought he would get a free kill,’ Nantambu said, referencing Florida’s notorious ‘Stand Your Ground’ law that permits deadly force under certain heightened circumstances.

One video, provided to Daily Mail by Nantambu, shows the jewelry designer fighting with a group of men before an individual matching Brown’s description abruptly flees. Another viral video of the incident appears to show Brown returning to the melee with a gun in hand.

‘He ran to get the gun. He shot at me. I think he grazed my neck. We started fighting for the gun,’ Nantambu said. ‘The adrenaline is going crazy. He ran into me. I threw him on the ground. A gun fell. We start scrambling for the gun on the ground.’

It was at this point cops arrived, according to Nantambu.

‘The police are screaming: “Who has the gun?”‘ Nantambu told Daily Mail. ‘Kids are screaming: “AB shooting! AB shooting!” He could have hit one of them kids.’

Brown was later apprehended nearby, but despite the violent uproar, Miami police made no arrests and Brown later wrote on X he was considering potential legal action against ‘the individuals that jumped me.’

Meanwhile, the police apparently ignored Nantambu, who claimed to walk away from the scene with one shoe ‘like Cinderella’ and blood dripping from a neck wound that could have been far worse.

‘I’m feeling this burning sensation on my neck,’ Nantambu told Daily Mail. ‘I thank God I’m not murdered. God spared me from getting shot in the face.’

From there, Nantambu went to the hospital for the neck wound and a broken finger before flying to the Beltway the following morning for an event supporting Sudanese refugees.

An outspoken supporter of Sudan and Palestine who also works in filmmaking, fashion and music, Nantambu made national headlines in February when he was among the protestors who stormed the field during halftime at Super Bowl LIX .

He has since been charged with resisting a police officer and disturbing the peace by interrupting a lawful assembly.

Interestingly, Nantambu actually met Brown three years prior to the shooting in Dubai while both were in town for a Floyd Mayweather Jr. exhibition.

A proud Muslim already familiar to the area, Nantambu said he arrived in Dubai in May of 2022 to discover a shirtless Brown being ‘disrespectful’ to customs officials at the airport.

‘He was cursing them out and all that,’ Nantambu told Daily Mail.

Nantambu was in Dubai hoping to convince Mayweather to help him promote a pendant necklace he was selling. And since Brown and Mayweather were known acquaintances, Nantambu used the bit of Arabic he speaks to help calm tensions at the airport: ‘I intervened to try to quell it, because they weren’t going to let him in the country.’

Brown was, perhaps, at the height of his infamy at the time. It was only a few months earlier that he ended a sideline spat with Buccaneers coaches by removing his uniform and running off the field during a game, never to play in the NFL again.

But despite Brown’s well-reported personal and professional problems, Nantambu approached him as they waited for their baggage. The two began talking, and as Nantambu remembers, they ended up hanging out on a yacht with Mayweather prior to the fight.

When fight night came around, Nantambu said, he agreed to let Brown wear the pendant with disastrous consequences.

‘He basically tried to steal it,’ Nantambu said. ‘He moved hotel rooms, left the hotel, stopped answering calls. And then when I confronted him about the pendant, he acted like he lost it.’

Nantambu said Brown gave him some of his own jewelry to hold as collateral, but later allegedly lied to police in Dubai, falsely claiming that the valuables were stolen from Brown by Nantambu.

‘He told them that I stole $2 million worth of jewelry from him,’ said Nantambu, who has yet to get his pendant back from Brown.

Nantambu was released approximately one month later after presenting evidence to a local prosecutor that proved Brown made false claims to police, according to the court filing provided to the Daily Mail.

Since then, Nantambu has waged a legal battle with Brown, who continues to go through bankruptcy proceedings despite boasting on a podcast one year ago that he has ‘the freedom that comes with having money.’

However, according to Nantambu, mounting debt has forced Brown to sell his jewelry collection, which he’s replaced with faux gems.

‘Well, first off, I know that chain is fake that he’s wearing,’ Nantambu said of Brown. ‘He pawned all his real jewelry, the jewelry that he used to have in Dubai, like the gold Cuban-link [necklace] and the Richard Mille [watch] and the gold medallion that said “A B” – he got rid of all that.’