Former Green Bay Packers player Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila was nearly arrested this week, but two of his friends were and that led to him going off on YouTube. The two friends, Jordan Salmi, 24, and Ryan Desmith, 22, showed up at Assembly of God Church in Green Bay, Wisconsin on Tuesday night which was hosting a kid’s Christmas pageant ran by the Providence Academy. There was a reported family dispute over religious beliefs and Sakmu and Desmith were carrying concealed weapons.
“The officers responded to that church for a report of a trespassing complaint,” Kevin Warych of the Green Bay police department said per USA Today. “They came into contact with staff, who reported two individuals who were asked to leave but weren’t leaving….When the officers made contact with the two individuals, the officers tried to convince them to leave, but they did not. They were subsequently arrested for trespassing.”
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Gbaja-Biamila was also there but he was not arrested because he left when officers told him to go. However, the former Packers defensive end posted a 30-minute YouTube video that takes aim at members of the Straitway Truth Ministry, a group that Gbaja Biamila is associated with. He said he sent Salmi and Desmith to the church to film his sons in the Christmas pageant. Gbaja-Biamila said his friends were there peacefully but they ended up in handcuffs.
“I ended up on the scene trying to get my brothers out of the predicament, and they ended up trying to arrest me,” Gbaja-Biamila said. “Three officers put their hands on me and tried to put the cuffs on. I told them I do not consent, that I need a warrant and a probable cause. And — listen to this — they literally wanted to put me in handcuffs for looking at their badges and supposedly because I was looking at one of their guns.”
Gbaja-Biamila didn’t want his sons taking part in the pageant because he called it a “pagan event.” However, his estranged wife gave them the okay and the Providence Academy supported her decision.
“They got my sons — my property — doing pagan worship, and I told them I forbid it, and they dishonor me and say it’s OK for my sons to dishonor their father,” he said. “They used the sons, the children, to oppress the man, and the woman rules over them, so that the man walks in error.”
Gbaja-Biamila was a member of the Packers from 2000-2008 and recorded 74.5 sacks. He was named to the Pro Bowl in 2003 and he was inducted to the Packers Hall of Fame in 2013.
