5:46pm: The Vikings have announced that Peterson will be deactivated for Sunday’s game against the Patriots.
5:35pm: Several new details and statements have emerged since the initial report on Peterson. Here are a few of them:
- Montgomery County Sheriff Tommy Gage sent out a release confirming that a warrant has been issued for Peterson’s arrest, per the Houston Chronicle.
- Nick Wright of Sports Radio 610 in Houston has published a report with many specific details on the incident being investigated, which involved Peterson striking his four-year-old son with a tree branch. According to Wright, Peterson “admitted that he administered two different “whoopings” to his son” during his visit to Texas.
- WCCO in Minnesota also has photos from the police report of the four-year-old’s injuries, which Wright says were taken “at least a week” after the incident (Twitter link).
- Rusty Hardin, Peterson’s attorney, issued a statement which says that his client “used the same kind of discipline with his child that he experienced as a child growing up in east Texas,” and that “Adrian never intended to harm his son and deeply regrets the unintentional injury.”
4:26pm: Vikings star Adrian Peterson has been indicted in Montgomery County for reckless or negligent injury to a child, reports Mark Berman of FOX 26 Houston. Per Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (via Twitter), the indictment stems from Peterson disciplining his son with a switch. The Montgomery County District Attorney’s office tells ESPN that Peterson has not been arrested, while Montgomery County sheriff investigators say that the running back has been cooperative with them.
According to Rapoport (via Twitter), the investigation into the incident involving Peterson has been ongoing for some time — the longtime Viking testified in front of a grand jury weeks ago, a source tells the NFL.com scribe. It’s the latest bad piece of news in what has been a devastating week for the league, on the heels of all that has transpired with the Ray Rice suspension and the NFL’s apparent botched investigation into that incident.
While due process has yet to play out in Peterson’s case, the Vikings and the league will be under the microscope as they decide how to handle this news. As Jay Glazer of FOX Sports tweets, because Peterson was indicted, he’ll have to turn himself in and his status for this weekend’s game against the Patriots is unclear. The club is currently deciding on what to do with Peterson for Week 2, Glazer adds in a second tweet.