Giants Burress faces two Felony weapons charges

In perhaps the most egregious celebrity firearm/dining miscue since Robert Blake “left his gun” at Vitello's Restaurant in Studio City, CA, NY Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress managed to shoot himself in the thigh with his own concealed .40 caliber Glock at a Manhattan nightclub this past weekend.  Fortunately, the injury wasn’t serious as these things go but Burress is now in legal hot water facing two felony weapons charges.

Burress accidentally shot himself in the thigh at a New York nightspot called “The Latin Quarter” on Friday night, not long after the Giants announced that he wouldn’t play against the Washington Redskins due to a hamstring injury.  In a criminal complaint released by prosecutors, a witness reported hearing a “popping sound”.  Shortly thereafter, the witness saw a bloody pistol fall out of Plax’s pant leg after which he suggested that his companions (including Giants linebacker Antonio Pierce)”take (him) to the hospital”.

In an attempt to keep the incident on the QT, Burress and his associates took a page out of the Michael Vick “Ron Mexico” playbook.  He checked into New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center under the alias “Harris Smith”.  The hospital is under investigation for not reporting the gunshot to police, even after a number of staffers recognized him.  Burress even gave the medical personnel a false version of events, claiming he’d been shot at an Applebee’s restaurant where gunplay is presumably more commonplace. 

Burress has hired high profile lawyer Benjamin Brafman who has represented numerous other celebrities, most notably P.Diddy when the rap mogul was accused of his own gun possession rap.  Brafman said that Plax was in good spirits and that he hoped that he could continue his athletic career:

"If they let him play, he will be able to play. I think he will be a superstar for the rest of his career."

"My hope is that it plays out well and he can continue his career, because he's a good person I think, with a brilliant athletic career. And it would be a terrible sadness if an isolated incident could ruin a life.”

While the Giants and the NFL issued the expected “no comment” statements, his teammates spoke out on his behalf including running back Brandon Jacobs who spoke to Burress after the team’s victory over the Washington Redskins on Sunday:

"I called him and made a few jokes about the situation and his laugh is what I wanted to hear. If he didn't laugh I knew he was going to be down, which he shouldn't be down. It's a mistake that happened, something that shouldn't have happened and that's that."

Head coach Tom Coughlin made what he said would be his first, last and only comment on the matter:

"We all are upset about what happened with Plaxico, and hopefully he's going to be fine and so on and so forth. That's our first concern. Once that was taken care of, we knew that he was OK, then the guys got right back to focusing on the reason we were here."

Burress turned himself in on Monday and after being subjected to a “perp walk” in handcuffs for the benefit of the media, was released on $100,000 bail.  He will now await a grand jury’s decision on whether he should face an indictment on the charges.