{"id":739009,"date":"2026-02-08T22:46:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T22:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/739009\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T22:46:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T22:46:20","slug":"nfl-star-james-pearce-arrested-for-domestic-violence-fleeing-cops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/739009\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL star James Pearce arrested for domestic violence, fleeing cops"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Atlanta Falcons star rookie <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/falcons-pearce-arrest-2fd43f192b68e27fd4a0922da722197a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">James Pearce was arrested<\/a> Saturday and accused of domestic violence and fleeing from police.<\/p>\n<p>Pearce, a 22-year-old defensive end, was involved in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/news\/local\/2026\/02\/07\/falcons-lb-james-pierce-jr-arrested-after-police-chase-crash-in-doral-cops-say\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">domestic dispute with WNBA star Rickea Jackson<\/a> in South Florida, authorities said. He was charged with two counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, one count of aggravated stalking and one count of fleeing or eluding police.<\/p>\n<p>Pearce and Jackson previously dated, and she was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@espnw\/video\/7497086033939631406?lang=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">seated next to him<\/a> when the Falcons selected him in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft. Both were collegiate stars at the University of Tennessee.<\/p>\n<p>Law enforcement sources told local reporter Andy Slater that <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AndySlater\/status\/2020329451310252260\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Pearce intentionally crashed his car into Jackson\u2019s car<\/a> to prevent her from driving to a police station, then sped off when cops responded to the scene.<\/p>\n<p>Pearce later crashed his own vehicle and was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reels\/DUdsel9jXFc\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">arrested by numerous officers<\/a>, according to videos shared on social media.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities did not release further details of the incident. The Falcons said they were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/47863327\/falcons-james-pearce-arrested-florida-battery-charges\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">aware of Pearce\u2019s arrest<\/a> and \u201cgathering more information.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Just two days earlier, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AthleteVanity\/status\/2019592820173271262\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Pearce attended the NFL Honors ceremony<\/a> in San Francisco, finishing third in Defensive Rookie of the Year voting. He had 10.5 sacks and forced a fumble in his first season with the Falcons.<\/p>\n<p>Jackson, 24, has played two seasons <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/wnba\/players\/j\/jacksri02w.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">with the Los Angeles Sparks<\/a> after being selected No. 4 overall in the WNBA draft in 2024. She made the all-rookie team in her first season.<\/p>\n<p>With News Wire Services<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Atlanta Falcons star rookie James Pearce was arrested Saturday and accused of domestic violence and fleeing from police.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":739010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2069],"tags":[427,7,929,5102,88,6,9,855,111,2480],"class_list":{"0":"post-739009","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-commanders","8":"tag-commanders","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-national-news","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-nfl","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-washington","16":"tag-washington-commanders","17":"tag-washingtoncommanders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116037444317095370","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=739009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/739010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=739009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=739009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=739009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}