Raiders receiver Henry Ruggs III faces drunken-driving charges in connection with a car collision early Tuesday morning in Las Vegas that left one person dead.
The crash happened early Tuesday morning when a sports car Ruggs was driving hit an S.U.V., the police said. According to a statement released by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police, the fire department was called to the scene, where it found a person dead in the struck car.
Ruggs remained on the scene, the police said, and “showed signs of impairment.” The statement added that Ruggs would be charged with driving under the influence resulting in death. No charges have been filed yet, according to the Clark County District Attorney’s office in Nevada. If convicted of the charge, a felony, Ruggs, 22, faces two to 20 years in prison.
He was transported to University Medical Center in Las Vegas, where he was treated for injuries that were not life-threatening, the police said.
Ruggs’s lawyers, David Z. Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld, said in a statement that they were conducting their own investigation and asked for judgment to be reserved “until all the facts are gathered.”
The Raiders said in a statement that they were “devastated by the loss of life and our thoughts and prayers go out to the victim’s family.”
Ruggs’s involvement in the crash is the latest crisis during an unusually tumultuous stretch for the Raiders organization. The team announced over the summer that several high-ranking executives — among them Marc Badain, the team’s longtime president, and Ed Villanueva, the chief financial officer — had resigned. Mark Davis, the team’s owner, acknowledged last week that they had departed because the Raiders had overpaid taxes for years and may not be able to recoup the money.
Then, in October, Coach Jon Gruden resigned after The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal published stories detailing emails the coach sent over a 10-year period in which he used sexist, racist and misogynist language.
Even as turmoil has engulfed the organization, the Raiders, at 5-2, have gotten off to their best start since 2016. They have won both of their games under the interim head coach, Rich Bisaccia, and are in first place in the A.F.C. West.
