The heated dispute between former NFL star Earl Thomas and his ex-wife three years ago did, indeed, involve a gun and a knife … and the situation was terrifying — new police video shows.
In the footage, obtained this week by TMZ Sports, you can see as cops responded to a disturbance at an Airbnb in Austin, Texas back on April 13, 2020 … Thomas and his former partner, Nina Thomas, were arguing in a parking lot with weapons in their hand.
In Nina’s grasp was a blade — while in Earl’s was a pistol … and you can hear in the video, cops were desperate to get them to drop both when they arrived on the scene.
“Drop it now!” one officer said on the video while pointing his firearm at the couple. “Drop it!”
The footage shows both Thomases put their weapons down … and then they both lay face-first on the asphalt.
Cops then slowly approached the two with their guns drawn — imploring them to stay down.
“This is my wife,” the former Baltimore Ravens safety can be heard saying in the clip. “She caught me cheating.”
Added Nina, “I caught my husband cheating, officers.”
“Whatever you do,” one of the cops responded, “don’t reach for that knife.”
After a few tense moments, Nina was placed in cuffs without issue and taken to a different part of the parking lot for questioning. Earl, who was shirtless, was also put into custody without issue and moved away from Nina in the lot as well.
During ensuing questioning, Nina can be heard in the body camera video saying she and her sister-in-law had gone to the Airbnb earlier in the evening in order to confront Earl and his brother about cheating on them at the residence with other women.
“So,” she said during the interview, “my husband has been leaving — we’ve been having problems. He’s been leaving off and on all weekend. And he said he was hanging with some buddies. And I didn’t believe that, because we’ve had issues in the past. So I hacked his Snapchat and found his location here.”
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NFL’s Earl Thomas Held At Gunpoint By Wife In Violent Standoff, Cops Say
“I was calling, I was texting,” she continued. “And I didn’t know which room it was, and then from pictures, I recognized the lights inside. And I just so happened to turn the handle and the door was open.”
Nina — who had a cut on her hand — also told the officers that she had brought Earl’s gun to the location in order to scare him. She insisted it was not loaded while adding that she had grabbed the knife from the Airbnb during the dispute.
She said she and Earl had been involved in pushing and shoving during the altercation — and told the cop, “My brother-in-law did get physical with my sister-in-law.”
“I don’t know exactly what happened because I was dealing with my own husband.”
According to police documents, Nina also told cops at the scene that after she and her sister-in-law found Earl and his brother “naked in bed with other women,” she pointed the gun at Earl’s head, stating “that she took out the magazine thinking that the gun could not fire.” But, cops said in the docs Nina was “unaware that the gun had a round in the chamber.”
In the docs, officers said Earl was able to wrestle the gun away from her … and eventually, the argument spilled out into the parking lot — where cops intercepted them.
Nina was ultimately arrested and booked for burglary of a residence with intent to commit aggravated assault with a deadly weapon — family violence. Earl was not arrested.
The former Seattle Seahawks star — a Super Bowl champion and three-time All-Pro — downplayed everything in a video in the days following the incident, saying, “Stuff like this happens.” The two — who were married in 2016 — then continued to work on their relationship for several months … before Nina filed for divorce from him later in 2020.
MAY 2020
As for her criminal case, Nina had several court hearings on the matter in the months following her arrest … though it was all eventually dismissed in 2021.