{"id":4465,"date":"2013-08-02T23:27:55","date_gmt":"2013-08-03T03:27:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/?p=4465"},"modified":"2013-08-02T23:27:55","modified_gmt":"2013-08-03T03:27:55","slug":"iraq-vet-turned-cheerleader-megan-welter-arrested-for-assault","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/2013\/08\/02\/iraq-vet-turned-cheerleader-megan-welter-arrested-for-assault\/","title":{"rendered":"Iraq vet turned cheerleader Megan Welter arrested for assault"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4461\" alt=\"meganwelter\" src=\"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/files\/2013\/08\/meganwelter.jpg\" width=\"630\" height=\"359\" srcset=\"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/files\/2013\/08\/meganwelter.jpg 630w, http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/files\/2013\/08\/meganwelter-300x170.jpg 300w, http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/files\/2013\/08\/meganwelter-50x28.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Megan Welter, the Iraq war veteran turned football cheerleader, was arrested on assault charges in Scottsdale, Arizona.<\/p>\n<p>Welter placed a 911 call to Scottsdale police at 3 am on July 20 explaining that she had been in an altercation with her boyfriend, Ryan.<\/p>\n<p>In the <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4458 alignright\" alt=\"weltermug\" src=\"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/files\/2013\/08\/weltermug.jpg\" width=\"250\" height=\"307\" srcset=\"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/files\/2013\/08\/weltermug.jpg 390w, http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/files\/2013\/08\/weltermug-50x61.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/>call Welter says:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy boyfriend became abusive\u2026He smashed my head into tile,\u201dWelter also claimed to have been put in a choke hold and told the operator that \u201cHe knows how to fight, he\u2019s a professional fighter, he\u2019s been trained in wrestling.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As <a href=\"Megan Welter, the Iraq war vet turned pro-football cheerleader whose inspiring story went viral this week has been arrested on assault charges in Scottsdale, Arizona.  More on Shine: Megan Welter, Cardinals Cheerleader and Iraq Veteran  Now Welter, who was lauded for her service as a platoon leader and for acing her auditions for the Arizona Cardinals cheerleading squad when she returned home, is at the center of a sordid domestic dispute. And Welter\u2019s mugshot, in which she looks disheveled and drained, has quickly replaced the glammed-up action shot of her cheering in red hot pants and cropped top.   More on Yahoo!: Celtics' Terrence Williams Arrested 'For Making Threats With Gun' In Domestic Dispute  Here\u2019s what's been reported so far: Welter placed a 911 call to the Scottsdale police at 3am on July 20, explaining that she\u2019d been in a physical altercation with her boyfriend, Ryan, and that they\u2019d both been drinking to celebrate her birthday. \u201cMy boyfriend became abusive\u2026He smashed my head into tile,\u201d Welter, sounding out of breath and intoxicated, told the emergency operator in the recording of the 911 call, obtained and provided to Yahoo! Shine by RightThisMinute. She added that he had also put her in a &quot;choke hold,&quot; and that \u201cHe knows how to fight, he\u2019s a professional fighter, he\u2019s been trained in wrestling.\u201d  When police arrived at Welter\u2019s house, they interviewed her boyfriend\u2014not identified by the Scottsdale Police Department, which blurred out his face in a video of that exchange, obtained by RightThisMinute. That\u2019s when he told police that Welter had actually assaulted him, and that he had recorded the fight on his phone.  Welter's mugshot. Photo: Scottsdale Police Department\u201cShe found a text message from another girl and she started kicking the s*** out of me,\u201d he explained calmly, adding that he hadn\u2019t touched her. \u201cI was asking her to stop, I was trying to leave. She was pulling out my hair, she was scratching me, she punched me in my face. I have it all on tape.\u201d  That video recording, quickly making its way around the web, is grainy and has action that\u2019s hard to see, but includes a wobbly-looking Welter pushing and pulling him and screaming, \u201cWho is she?\u201d and demanding her boyfriend's phone as he repeatedly tells her to stop and go inside.  Police arrested Welter, who was later released on a citation and given a court date, according to an email by a police spokesperson. As for her boyfriend, officials claim, \u201cthere was no probably cause to arrest the boyfriend for any crime.\u201d Welter showed no signs of being assaulted, according to the police report.  Welter\u2019s boyfriend declined to speak with local TV station KTVK, which reported the story Friday, but did release a statement to the station. &quot;People make mistakes, no one is perfect. I honestly want the best for her and I hope that this doesn't take away from the good things that she has done for both the NFL, as well as the service to our country,\u201d it read. \u201cPeople seem to only remember the bad and it is easy to point fingers while standing on the outside. Now with that said, violence is never the answer and I honestly hope that this can be a learning experience for her and everyone else.&quot;  A representative of the Arizona Cardinals did not immediately respond to Yahoo! Shine\u2019s request for comment.\" target=\"_blank\">yahoo shine<\/a> reports:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>When police arrived at Welter\u2019s house, they interviewed her boyfriend\u2014not identified by the Scottsdale Police Department, which blurred out his face in a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rightthisminute.com\/video\/megan-welter-az-cardinals-cheerleader-police-interview-arrest\" target=\"_blank\" data-rapid_p=\"5\">video <\/a>of that exchange, obtained by RightThisMinute. That\u2019s when he told police that Welter had actually assaulted him, and that he had recorded the fight on his phone.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The altercation began after Welter found a text message from another girl on phone.<\/p>\n<p>Police arrested Welter, who was later released on a citation and given a court date. The Arizona Cardinals have not released a statement.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Megan Welter, the Iraq war veteran turned football cheerleader, was arrested on assault charges in Scottsdale, Arizona. Welter placed a 911 call to Scottsdale police at 3 am on July 20 explaining that she had been in an altercation with her boyfriend, Ryan. In the call Welter says: \u201cMy boyfriend became abusive\u2026He smashed my head [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[425],"tags":[184,345],"coauthors":[4],"class_list":{"0":"post-4465","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-arizona-cardinals","9":"tag-megan-welter"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4465"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}