Ex-NFL player Sergio Brown arrested in Southern California in connection to mother’s slaying

Former NFL player Sergio Brown was arrested in Southern California in connection with the death of his mother, authorities said, as he tried to reenter the United States from Mexico just weeks after the 73-year-old woman was found slain behind her suburban Chicago home.

Brown, 35, was detained Tuesday afternoon and booked into San Diego County Jail without bail following a “fugitive arrest,” records show.

Brown agreed to be extradited to Illinois during a Wednesday court hearing, San Diego District Attorney’s office spokesperson Steve Walker told The Associated Press in an email.

Authorities in Illinois have until Nov. 13 to retrieve Brown, Walker said.

Walker said an attorney from the San Diego County Public Defender’s office represented Brown at the hearing. The AP was unable to reach anyone Wednesday afternoon at the public defender’s office for comment.

It was unclear what the exact charges are against Brown, but a warrant for his arrest cited first-degree murder, according to a news release from Maywood, Illinois police. The police department did not immediately return a call and email from the AP to verify the charge.

Maywood police announced Wednesday that Brown was arrested after he attempted to reenter the United States from Mexico, WMAQ-TV reported.

The search for Brown began after Myrtle Brown’s body was found Sept. 16 near a creek in Maywood, about 12 miles (19 kilometers) west of Chicago. Relatives had told officers that they could not find Sergio Brown or Myrtle Brown.

A medical examiner ruled her death a homicide and determined that she had been injured during an assault.

Following her death, police began checking the authenticity of Instagram videos that appear to show Sergio Brown discussing her death. In a video posted Sept. 18 to an Instagram page that appeared to belong to Sergio Brown, a man resembling Brown calls reports about his mother’s death “fake news.”

“Fake news, fake news, fake news. It has to be the FBI,” the man says in the rambling, expletive-filled video, in which he says he thought his mother “was on vacation” in the Mexican state of Sinaloa.

In another video posted to Instagram, the man references the film “Finding Nemo,” repeating the movie’s famous line, “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming,” the Chicago Tribune reported.

Sergio Brown, who graduated from Proviso East High School in Maywood, played college football for Notre Dame before his time with the NFL. He played defensive back from 2010 through 2016 with the New England Patriots, Indianapolis Colts, Jacksonville Jaguars and Buffalo Bills.

____

Williams reported from West Bloomfield, Michigan.

Corey Williams, The Associated Press