Detroit Lions player accused in wrong-way drunken driving crash hours before team waived him, police say

DETROIT – A player who was waived by the Detroit Lions over the weekend is accused of causing a head-on crash hours earlier while driving intoxicated on the wrong side of a highway, according to officials.

Alexander Deonte Brown, 24, of South Carolina, was involved in a crash at 2:13 a.m. Sunday (Aug. 15) on southbound I-75 near I-375 in Detroit, authorities said.

Michigan State Police troopers said Brown was intoxicated and driving at a high speed on the wrong side of the freeway when he struck a car driven by a 27-year-old Detroit man. The head-on crash caused an injury to the 27-year-old man’s legs, according to police.

Officials said the man was carried on a backboard by medics and transported to a nearby hospital.

Brown’s front-seat passenger, a 23-year-old man, was trapped inside the car and removed with the jaws of life, police said. Medical officials put a cervical collar on him, placed him on a backboard and took him to a nearby hospital, according to authorities. He has an injured neck.

Brown is charged with two counts of operating while under the influence causing serious injury and two counts of reckless driving causing serious injury.

Brown, a cornerback, played 11 snaps for the Lions during Friday’s preseason game against the Buffalo Bills at Ford Field. The team waived Brown at 12:51 p.m. Sunday, according to the official Twitter account. That was less than 12 hours after the crash reportedly happened.

Brown is expected to be arraigned after 10 a.m. Tuesday in 36th District Court.