Ex-Nets Star Jayson Williams Suicidal, Violent at Manhattan Hotel

BY Alison Gendar, Edgar Sandoval and Dave Goldiner
Cops tasered ex-NBA star Jayson Williams on Monday after the troubled hoopster freaked out in a violent, suicidal rage in a luxury Manhattan hotel, police sources said.
The mercurial New Jersey Nets center, who faces a retrial for shooting his chauffeur in 2002, was rushed to St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan in handcuffs after cops found suicide notes and empty pill bottles littering his 15th-floor room, sources said.
"Tell my mother that I love her," Williams, 41, wrote in one panicked scribble, police sources said.
Williams, who is going through a nasty divorce, was in a spacious room at the Hilton Embassy Suites in Battery Park City.
The 6-foot-10 former All-Star called his mother around 1 a.m. Things quickly went downhill as he became distraught and apparently started downing sleeping pills and anti-depressants.
A worried woman called cops around 4a.m., possibly from the room. Police smashed down the door to get inside.
The towering, 325-pound star fought back and police had to use the stun guns to subdue him. It took two sets of handcuffs to restrain him, cops said.
"He was barricaded, drinking, taking pills. He was overwhelmed," a police source said. "It all came crashing down."
Cops found several suicide notes, including a message scrawled on the wall.
Williams was distraught over his divorce, his parents' illnesses and his impending retrial in the chauffeur-shooting case, they said.
He had five prescriptions in his room, all made out to him, along with a hypodermic needle and a vial of human growth hormone, police sources said.
Despite the drama, a few hours later, Williams' manager insisted the troubled ex-athlete was on the mend. He was in stable condition and has not been charged in the fracas.
Full story