Former Miami Dolphins player bolts from courtroom, injures two police officers

A former Miami Dolphins cornerback left two Miami-Dade police officers injured on Tuesday after he bolted from a Miami-Dade courtroom when a judge ordered him placed under custody, police said.

Dimitri Patterson, 34, was being detained Tuesday evening and is expected to face charges including battery on a law enforcement officer.

Patterson, who played for the Dolphins in 2012 and 2013, was at the Lawson E. Thomas Courthouse Center in downtown Miami at a hearing before Judge William Altfield. It was not clear why he was in court.

After the judge ordered that Patterson be taken into custody, he took off running, said Argemis Colome, a spokesman for Miami-Dade police.

He knocked down a female officer who hit her head, Colome said. She was taken to a nearby hospital and was later released. A male officer suffered a wrist injury.

Patterson was arrested on a felony child abuse charge in 2015 at Aventura Mall, according to ESPN.

According to an Aventura police report posted on Local 10’s website, Patterson went to the mall to meet the mother of his child to pick up his 1-year-old son. That’s when the two began to argue, an officer wrote in the report. Patterson’s ex-girlfriend began recording him because of “his aggressive tone,” the officer said.

Patterson then threw her to the ground, which caused her to drop her son. She suffered redness to the back of her neck and the baby had a bruise on the back of his head, according to the report.

Court records show he was acquitted by a jury for culpable negligence and battery in July.

This story was originally published August 15, 2017 at 6:43 PM with the headline "Former Miami Dolphins player bolts from courtroom, injures two police officers."