Sha’Carri Richardson was arrested at the Seattle Tacoma International Airport on Sunday and charged with domestic assault, according to numerous published reports.
A Port of Seattle Police Department report said that Richardson was involved in an incident with her boyfriend, sprinter Christian Coleman, and taken into custody. She was detained at the SCORE South Correctional Entity for nearly 19 hours before being released the following day the police report also indicated that the case has been cleared.
The police report, obtained by The Athletic, noted that an officer on duty who viewed footage of the altercation detailed that Richardson was involved in an verbal argument with Coleman near a security checkpoint. The same arresting officer said they saw Richardson shove Coleman several times as he walked away and believed the escalated incident warranted an arrest.
The footage also showed Richardson pulling Coleman’s backpack and she obstructed his path as he attempted to walk past her.
Coleman then appeared to be headed to the security screening area when Richardson threw an object at him that appeared be a pair of headphones.
Richardson, 25, was booked on a fourth-degree domestic assault charge at the Des Moines, Washington facility at 6:54 p.m. Sunday and released Monday at 1:13 p.m.
The arresting officer also said, “I was told Coleman did not want to participate any further in the investigation and declined to be a victim,” according to the report and Coleman did not press charges against Richardson.
Both sprinters were likely en route to the USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon this week. In a statement on Friday, USATF said that is “aware of the reports and is not commenting on this matter.”
Later on Friday, Richardson withdrew from the women’s 100m qualifying round — and pulled out from the 200m. However, she competed in the preliminary round of the event on Thursday and her season’s best 11.07 advanced her to Friday’s race.
But Richardson is the current world champion in the women’s 100m after her win at the 2023 world championships in Budapest, Hungary and has a bye heading into world championships in Tokyo in September. She does not have an automatic world qualifier for the women’s 200m and late Friday night was listed for the 200m qualifier — which will have it’s final on Sunday.
Coleman was also in the process of trying to make the world championship U.S. team and qualified for the final in the men’s 100m. He finished fifth in 9.86 on Friday as Kenny Bednarek (9.79), Courtney Lindsey (9.82) and T’Mars McCallum (9.83) took the top three spots for the group headed to Tokyo.
Richardson is returning to form after barely racing since the 2024 Paris Olympics where she won silver in the women’s 100m and gold in the women’s 4x100m relay.
