Bengals’ Mackensie Alexander accused of battery while searching for missing father
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Cincinnati Bengals cornerback Mackensie Alexander was jailed Wednesday on a charge of misdemeanor battery after deputies say he beat up a man shortly after returning to Florida to help search for his missing father.
Alexander, 26, and another man, 28-year-old Evins Clement, were arrested by Collier County sheriff’s deputies Tuesday night, not long after Alexander arrived back in southwest Florida where he grew up and his family still lives in the small farming community of Immokalee. Alexander was being held without bond Wednesday pending an afternoon court hearing.
Alexander had left Bengals training camp earlier Tuesday to assist the search for his 65-year-old father, Jean Alexandre, a Haitian immigrant who uses a French spelling of the family’s surname and has been missing since Monday.
Investigators say Mauricet Etienne told them that he, Alexandre and others drove about 80 miles from Immokalee to pick palmetto berries in Okeechobee County on Monday. According to a missing person’s report released Wednesday, Etienne, 56, said that after several hours of picking, he could not find Alexandre and spent three hours searching for him before returning to Immokalee to pick up Alexandre’s wife, Marie. They returned to Okeechobee County, where they searched for another 45 minutes before heading back to Immokalee and calling deputies.
Etienne told deputies that he had no ill will toward Alexandre. He agreed he should have called law enforcement when he first realized Alexandre was missing, but he said he was afraid because he had been previously told by deputies that he did not have permission to pick berries in that area.
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The Okeechobee County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday that deputies were searching for Alexandre but referred all other questions to authorities in Collier County, where Immolokee is located.
According to Alexander’s arrest report, he and Clement had gone to the home of the man he’s accused of assaulting “to discuss a previous incident.†Collier County sheriff’s officials declined to say if the man is Etienne, citing a Florida law that shields the names of crime victims. But in a redacted recording of a call the victim’s son apparently made to deputies from his own home, the son said his father was attacked by men who were angry because they think he is responsible for a man who had gone missing on Monday.
The report says Alexander came to the man’s house and tried to convince him to go with them, but he refused, saying he was scared of retaliation. The man told deputies that Alexander then threatened to get a gun from his car. When he still refused to go with them, the man said Clement grabbed him and Alexander began punching him in the face.
The two fled when they heard sirens approaching but were arrested a short time later.
No attorneys are listed on court records for Alexander or Clement. Deputies said the victim suffered a cut lip and forehead.
“We recognize that this is an emotional and frightening time for the family and friends of Jean Odney Alexandre. However, everyone must act within the law,†sheriff’s spokeswoman Michelle Batten said in a statement.
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