LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Las Vegas Aces player Riquna Williams has been charged after police say she hit, kicked, and strangled her wife in a domestic violence incident that lasted an hour, according to police documents.
Williams, a member of last year’s championship team, is facing five felony charges, including counts of domestic battery, domestic battery by strangulation, assault with the use of a deadly weapon, and coercion of domestic violence with force or threat to force, court records show.
According to an arrest report from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, officers were called to Williams’ home on Tuesday around noon after her wife called 911.
Williams and her wife have been together for four years and were married in September.
Speaking with police, Williams’ wife said the veteran WNBA player had been standoffish and would not spend any time with her for the past couple of days. The victim said she texted Williams on Monday night, saying the two needed to take a break from each other. She added she would go back to Florida, where the couple lives in the off-season, to spend time with her son. Williams replied “OK” but did not join the victim in bed, police said.
Early Tuesday morning, the victim said she began packing when Williams allegedly came into the room and told her “not to take anything she did not pay for.” Williams then threw clothes that had been packed in a suitcase onto the floor.
According to the report, Williams asked the victim where she was going, to which the victim replied, “We agreed you would let me leave?”
Williams’ wife also accused her of taking her cellphone, iPad, credit and debit cards, and ID, so “[the victim] could not leave her.”
Williams allegedly accused the victim of cheating on her and getting in her face, yelling at her. The victim told police Williams grabbed her by the shirt and threw her to the ground before choking her “until she could not breathe.” Williams reportedly choked her wife multiple times during the incident.
“I’ll kill you here and walk to the jail myself!” Williams reportedly told the victim.
Williams has also been accused of grabbing her wife at one point and punching her. The victim told police that because Williams is a professional athlete and works out every day, there was no way she could overpower Williams.
Her wife also accused her of blocking her in the bedroom and swinging items at her head. At one point, after choking the victim, Williams allegedly began hitting her in the face again.
According to the report, the victim told police that the incident lasted about an hour.
The victim also told police that Williams said she was going to stay at a hotel and when she got back, the victim needed to be gone. When the victim asked Williams where she could go without her ID and credit cards, Williams told the victim that “she did not care, she just wanted [the victim] gone.”
Williams left for part of the morning, returning to argue with the victim about things she had found on her phone, the victim told officers. That’s when Williams allegedly began hitting and kicking the victim.
The victim told police that Williams then took a shower and left. According to the report, the victim waited a few hours to build courage before going to a neighbor’s house to call a family member and then the police.
The neighbor told police he overheard the victim telling a family member that Williams was planning on killing [the victim] and then herself, and said “she did it again,” in reference to being hit by her wife.
Detectives took Williams into custody outside of a gym. She reportedly asked detectives why she was being detained, telling police she was the victim and had been beaten up. The report stated she had asked police if she was the suspect “because [the victim] had called first.”
The WNBA player allegedly accused her wife of being the aggressor but did not provide any specific details and kept changing her story, police said. Officers also noted that Williams said she had “a busted lip” and two black eyes, however, medical staff at an area hospital told police that she “did not have injuries consistent to what she was alleging.”
Williams was arrested and taken to the Clark County Detention Center. She was released on Wednesday without having to pay bail and was ordered to stay away from the victim.
“The court does have concerns regarding the extremely violent nature of the allegations in this case, that they alleged to have occurred over an extended period of time, and that you came back as a high-risk lethality on the domestic violence report. The court does balance that, however, with your lack of any criminal history at age 33,” Las Vegas Judge Rebecca Saxe said in court.
Court records obtained by the Associated Press show that Williams was arrested in 2019 for domestic battery charges when she played for the Los Angeles Sparks. The WNBA suspended Williams for 10 games following that arrested. Those charges were dismissed in 2020.
The Las Vegas Aces released this statement:
“The Las Vegas Aces were made aware of domestic violence charges against a member of our team, Riquna Williams. As an organization, we condemn domestic violence of any kind. At this time, Riquna Williams will be precluded from participating in team activities. Our thoughts are with the parties involved in this situation. We are currently gathering more information, and as such we will not have any further comments at this time.”
In a statement shared with ESPN Wednesday, the WNBA said it is “aware of the alleged incident” and is “in the process of gathering more information.”
Williams’ next court appearance is scheduled for August 2.