Police bodycam footage shows UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones in an apparent drunken and somber state during his arrest Thursday in Albuquerque, N.M.
Jones was arrested on four charges – including aggravated DWI and negligent use of a firearm – in the early morning hours Thursday. He was booked and released by the Albuquerque Police Department.
On Friday, MMA Junkie obtained bodycam footage of Jones’ arrest from the Bernalillo County District Attorney. The video, which can be seen above, shows an officer – Brian Johnson, according to the police report – approaching a black SUV. Jones is sitting in the driver’s seat and is asked if he had been drinking. Jones admits to alcohol usage, saying he had a drink of vodka earlier in the day. The officer asks Jones to follow his finger with his eyes.
From there, Johnson asks Jones to step out of the car. Jones is patted down and asked to perform a series of sobriety tests. Jones tells the officer he has short-term memory loss and attention deficit disorder (ADD), causing him to restart a walking test.
When asked what he was doing out during a time when New Mexico is under a stay-at-home order due to the coronavirus pandemic, Jones said he was going “stir crazy” at home and wanted to go for a drive. He added that he was talking to homeless people who were on the side of the road.
“I got stir crazy. I got pulled over just being nice, being nice to the homeless people,” Jones said. “I literally just got stir crazy. I just wanted to have a drive. This is my first drive in two weeks. And I saw these homeless guys, I was being nice to them, having conversation with them, treating them like humans.”
Officer Johnson asks Jones to perform alternative tests, including counting exercises and the alphabet. He’s then handcuffed and is informed that he’s being placed under arrest,
A seemingly emotional Jones is loaded into the back of the police cruiser, and his voice appears to crack as he makes a request to the officer.
“Sir, if it’s not too much, could you roll down the window?” he asks.
Jones is no stranger to run-ins with the law. In 2012, he avoided jail time on a misdemeanor DWI charge caused by running his Bentley into a utility pole in upstate New York. Jones’ next major incident came in April 2015, when he was involved in a hit-and-run that left a pregnant woman with a broken arm and resulted in him being stripped of his UFC title.
Although Jones avoided a jail sentence, he got 18 months of supervised probation and had to make 72 charity or youth outreach appearances. He completed the work, but in March 2016 had a highly publicized traffic stop in which he engaged in a verbal back-and-forth with an Albuquerque police officer after being accused of drag racing.
This past September, Jones pleaded no contest to a battery charge for allegedly slapping a waitress at a strip club, choking her, kissing her, and touching her after she asked him to stop. The 90-day deferred sentence included an order to avoid arrest and stay away from alcohol. That deferred sentence ended in late December.
Jones is currently due in court April 8.
'I got stir crazy': Bodycam video shows emotional Jon Jones during arrest