Former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant was issued a misdemeanor assault citation following a road rage incident in Southlake that ended with officers drawing their weapons in a retail parking lot Sunday afternoon.
Southlake police responded around 12:59 p.m. on October 25 to the 2200 block of FM 1709 after multiple callers reported a fight involving several people and a possible weapon. No firearms were found at the scene.
According to authorities the incident began near Kimball Avenue when Bryant reportedly claimed another driver had cut him off in traffic. Both parties then pulled into a nearby parking lot where the confrontation escalated.
Bryant was cited for assault by contact a Class C misdemeanor and released at the scene. He told OutKick that the two teenagers involved had driven recklessly and that one threatened to shoot him.
The two young men at the center of the dispute Noah Reyes and Terrance Avery both 19 tell a very different story. The pair said they were heading to a restaurant after church when the encounter began at a traffic light near Kimball Avenue and Southlake Boulevard.
Reyes said Avery had been honking at him as a joke when they noticed Bryant in a nearby vehicle. They deny cutting him off or driving recklessly at any point.
Video provided to NBC 5 shows Bryant shouting at Reyes before slapping a phone out of his hand and then throwing it to the ground. Avery said he attempted to calm the situation throughout the confrontation.
“I never even got in an argument with him. Whole time I’m talking to him I’m trying to de-escalate the situation and get him to calm down. He just was on 10” Avery told NBC 5.
Both teenagers denied Bryant’s claim that either of them threatened to shoot him. Avery pointed out that as 19-year-olds they are not legally permitted to carry handguns and said they had just come from church.
Reyes said the experience left him shaken adding that he felt intimidated by someone significantly older confronting him in a parking lot. Avery described the arrival of officers with guns drawn as one of the most frightening moments of the ordeal.
Several people were temporarily detained while Southlake police investigated the scene. Bryant has not responded to NBC 5’s requests for comment regarding the teenagers’ version of events.