Authorities in Tennessee have arrested and charged former NFL linebacker Darron Lee with first-degree murder following the death of his girlfriend. Hamilton County sheriff’s deputies responded to a call at a residence near Chattanooga on Thursday, where they discovered an unresponsive female. Despite attempts to perform life-saving measures, officials pronounced the woman dead at the scene.
Investigators quickly identified the 31-year-old former athlete as the primary suspect and took him into custody. By Friday, prosecutors formally leveled charges of first-degree murder and evidence tampering against Lee. He remains in detention pending a scheduled court appearance on February 11.
“Preliminary findings indicate the victim’s death was the result of a homicide,” read a statement from the Hamilton County sheriff’s office. Officials continue to withhold the identity of the deceased pending the notification of her family members.
This legal crisis follows a professional career that began with high expectations but ended in repeated controversy. The New York Jets selected Lee in the first round of the 2016 NFL Draft, yet the franchise traded him in 2019 following a series of disciplinary infractions and inconsistent on-field performances. Although he earned a Super Bowl ring with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2020, he did not participate in the championship game itself. Lee made his final professional appearance with the Buffalo Bills later that same year.
Lee’s history with the law includes a previous arrest in 2023 involving allegations of severe domestic battery and assault. Documentation from that prior incident described a violent encounter where he allegedly attacked a woman. The arrest report said he pushed a woman “against the wall, throwing her to the floor and striking her face and head eight to nine times with his closed fists”. Following a brief and unproductive stint with the Las Vegas Raiders in 2021, Lee remained out of professional football until these current capital charges emerged.
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