Man who allegedly shot ex-NFL, USC RB Joe McKnight released from custody
The man who allegedly shot and killed former NFL and USC running back Joe McKnight was released from custody Friday, Paste BN Sports confirmed.
Ronald Gasser, 54, remained at the scene of the apparent road rage incident and was taken into custody after Thursday afternoon’s incident in Terrytown, La.
“He has not been formally charged,” Jefferson Parish (La.) Sheriff's Office spokesperson Colonel John Fortunato told Paste BN. “This matter remains under investigation.”
A sheriff's statement added that preliminary accounts from witnesses and Gasser "suggested these events represented the culmination of a road rage incident."
Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand released the statement ahead of a Friday afternoon news conference in which he said Gasser fired three rounds through an open window. He added that all three rounds struck McKnight.
The statement said Gasser handed a semi-automatic handgun over to officers who arrived at the scene. Normand's statement also said witnesses observed a "heated verbal exchange" between Gasser and McKnight before the shooting.
The sheriff didn't immediately announce any charges and cautioned repeatedly against a rush to judgment.
“The easiest thing for me [to say] would have been, ‘Book him, Danno,'” Sheriff Normand told reporters, according to Pro Football Talk. “Right? But the fact of the matter is is that in trying to flesh out these details as it relates to all of this and not having that rush to judgment and doing this in a very deliberate and appropriate fashion, we chose not to do that.”
The New York Jets selected McKnight in the fourth round of the 2010 NFL draft. He played for the Jets and Kansas City Chiefs, both as a running back and kick returner. McKnight, 28, most recently played for the Edmonton Eskimos and Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
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