ASSOCIATED PRESS
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.
Charles Barkley was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol early Wednesday.
An officer with a law enforcement task force that targets drunken driving saw the former NBA star run a stop sign around 1:30 a.m., said Gilbert police Lt. Eric Shuhandler.
Barkley, 45, failed standard field sobriety tests after the officer smelled alcohol on him, and he was arrested. Barkley declined to submit to a breath test but was given a blood test. The results weren’t immediately available.
After Barkley was processed, he was cited and released. His car was impounded and he left in a cab, Shuhandler said.
Shuhandler said Barkley was cooperative, and that it is customary to release people after they’ve been arrested on suspicion of DUI.
“There was nothing unusual about how he was taken into custody,” Shuhandler said. “He was treated exactly like we treat anybody else.”
Barkley was arrested in Scottsdale’s Old Town area, one of the trendiest spots in the Phoenix metro area.
A television commentator for NBA games, the former Auburn player was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame last month.
He played 16 NBA seasons for the Philadelphia 76ers, Phoenix Suns and Houston Rockets, and played on the 1992 and 1996 Olympic teams. Barkley was an 11-time NBA All-Star and league MVP in 1993.
Selected one the NBA’s 50 greatest players in 1996, he was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006.
