Police: Velasquez booked for attempted murder
Cain Velasquez, the former UFC heavyweight champion, was arrested Monday on suspicion of attempted murder and booked into Santa Clara (California) County jail, the San Jose Police Department announced Tuesday morning.
Velasquez is being held without bail, according to online records. He has a court date set for Wednesday.
The San Jose Police Department announced Monday evening that there was a shooting in the city near the intersection of Monterey Highway and Bailey Avenue. Police said one adult male was shot at least once and transported to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. On Tuesday, police identified Velasquez as the shooter.
“The motives and circumstances surrounding this incident are still under investigation at this time,” the San Jose Police said on its public information Twitter account.
Velasquez, 39, is a two-time former UFC heavyweight champion, holding the title in 2010 and 2011 and then again from 2012 to 2015. The California native is considered one of the top heavyweight fighters of all time. Velasquez retired from MMA in 2019 and has been coaching at his longtime gym, American Kickboxing Academy in San Jose.
Velasquez’s team had not responded to a call for comment as of Tuesday morning.
After his run in the UFC, Velasquez took up professional wrestling, first in Mexico, where his parents were born, and then in WWE. He was released by WWE at the outset of the pandemic in 2020, but resurfaced for Mexican promotion AAA in December. The plan, sources said, was for him to wrestle more this year.