Three people are now facing murder charges thanks in part to ex-NFL player and current Illinois state senator Napoleon Harris.
The three were brought into the spotlight after they decided to rob their pizza guy, who turned out to be the former football linebacker.
“This wasn’t the average 5 foot 9 delivery guy,” spokesperson Sean Howard said according to CBS 2.
Howard said Harris, who owns two Beggars Pizzas in the city, wanted to help out his “overwhelmed” delivery team and decided to make the late night delivery earlier this month.
When he arrived at the house in Harvey, a suburb of Chicago, the 6 foot 3, 250 lb former linebacker was attacked by four men, according to the Daily Southtown.
“They put a chokehold on the senator, but to no avail. They were really trying to choke him to death, and he was just too strong. He out-powered all four of them,” Howard told reporters. “As they were all beating on him, one guy just went out of his way and really hit him hard, and Napoleon never moved.”
The attackers managed to take the pizza and a wallet away from Harris, but not before he got a good look at them and their getaway car, a Chevrolet Tahoe.
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Howard said Harris, who declined to speak about the attack, followed the car to a lumberyard, when he called the police department.
READ MORE: Pizza server fired after shaming NFL player online for leaving 75-cent tip on $128 bill
Police found blood in the car, which was linked to a murder investigation from Fulton County Georgia, CBS2 reports.
Using Harris’ descriptions and other evidence from the murder case, three of the four attackers were quickly found and arrested.
Malik Mayer, 20, and Stephen Crowe, 16, were arrested getting off a bus heading away from Chicago, and Lawrence Hines, 26, was arrested after surrendering himself to police at a mental facility in the area.
All three are facing murder charges for allegedly luring a man online using the app Grindr and then kidnapping him by duct taping his hands and putting him in the back of a vehicle.
A fourth suspect is in custody and has charges pending, The Daily Southtown reports that Hines was also wanted by the FBI for a 2015 incident in Burlington, Iowa.
It’s alleged the suspects took the victim to an abandoned house where they killed him, Project Q reports.
They then drove the car to Chicago, where the encounter with Harris took place.
Harris, for his part, is just happy that his employees didn’t have to deal with the dangerous event.
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