DeMarcus Cousins, the All-Star N.B.A. center who signed with the Los Angeles Lakers last month, has been accused of threatening to shoot a woman with whom he had a child, according to a protection order request filed in Mobile County Court in Alabama on Monday.
The request was submitted by a woman who identified herself as having once had a relationship with Cousins. According to the filing, Cousins threatened to shoot her last Friday, the day before Cousins’ wedding with another woman, Morgan Lang. In the court filing, the woman accused Cousins of having choked her in the past.
The news website TMZ, which first reported the accusations on Tuesday, published an audio recording of a phone call said to be of Cousins threatening to shoot the woman if she did not let their child attend his wedding. In the court filing, the woman said Cousins, using an expletive, threatened to shoot her in the head “even if he didn’t have to get his hands dirty doing it.”
A spokeswoman for the Mobile Police Department confirmed in an email that a police report had been filed on Friday and said that it was “all that we can release.” Though the phone call reported by TMZ was not addressed in the police report, the spokeswoman added that the woman “advised us of what was said in the recording.”
Representatives for Cousins did not respond to a request for comment, and the woman could not immediately be reached.
A spokeswoman for the Lakers said: “We are aware of the allegation involving DeMarcus Cousins and, of course, take this claim seriously. We are in the process of gathering information and will reserve further comment at this time.”
In a statement, Mike Bass, a spokesman for the N.B.A, said, “We are aware of the report regarding DeMarcus Cousins and are investigating the allegations.”
The woman has asked the court to bar Cousins from “committing acts of abuse” and to issue a restraining order to keep him from contacting her or their child.
