Crime & Arrests

Teshaun Hightower -- a Tulane men's basketball star who just declared for the 2020 NBA Draft -- was arrested this weekend for felony murder, records show.

Officials believe the 22-year-old is involved in the April 8 shooting death of a man in Stockbridge, GA. Cops say the Green Wave star is one of six people who they believe contributed to the murder.

Law enforcement has not yet released further details surrounding the shooting.

Hightower was arrested Saturday at 9:50 PM, according to jail records, and was booked on 8 charges, including felony murder and felony aggravated assault. No bond was listed for the NCAA star.

Tulane announced in a statement shortly after his arrest, "Upon learning of Teshaun’s arrest this afternoon, he was immediately dismissed from the Tulane basketball program."

Hightower had just declared himself eligible for the NBA draft on April 18 ... this after he posted a monster season in 2019-20.

The shooting guard/point guard started 29 games for the Green Wave, averaged 34.3 minutes per game and posted a team-high 15.9 points per game.

Hightower also logged 4.6 rebounds per game ... and had intended to come back to the school if his NBA draft prospects weren't favorable.

No mooning over Miami -- this half-naked woman was topless -- but she did serve up her own version of a Grand Slam ... destroying at least 100 plates in a SoCal Denny's.

The topless woman was caught on video Thursday around 11:20 AM grabbing plates from a large stack in the seating area of the Hawthorne, CA restaurant ... and smashing the hell out of them.

Her rampage went on for at least a couple minutes as patrons and employees yelled for her to stop. Her only reply was, "Shut the f*** up, man" -- and then quickly back to the bang-up work at hand.

Police showed up while she was still in the middle of her plate-chucking riot, and eventually controlled the situation and detained the woman.

Cops tell us they'd gotten a call about a woman at a bus stop taking her clothes off, and arguing with people before making her way into the Denny's.

We're told she was detained and will undergo a mental evaluation -- cops believe she was under the influence of something.

BTW, the Denny's is closed for regular dining due to the coronavirus, but still open for online order pickups -- which, luckily, don't require plates.

Tekashi 6ix9ine is getting super close to releasing new music ... because he's begging the judge to let him shoot music videos in his own backyard.

According to new legal docs, obtained by TMZ, Tekashi's legal team is asking Judge Engelmayer to allow the rapper to spend up to 2 hours in his backyard once a week to work on music videos.

As we first told you ... Judge Engelmayer released Tekashi from prison early following 69's plea to get out to avoid being infected with the novel coronavirus. He's now serving out his time on in-home incarceration.

In the docs, Tekashi's lawyers say his probation officer is aware of the request and has no objection ... so 69 just needs the judge's stamp of approval too.

Remember ... Tekashi scored a lucrative record deal back in October, and now it sounds like new music is dropping soon,

"Straight Outta Compton" star Jason Mitchell has just been arrested in Mississippi on felony weapons and drug charges ... TMZ has learned.

The actor was booked into Harrison County Jail Wednesday and he's facing four felony charges ... according to online records.

Jason, who played Eazy-E in the N.W.A biopic, is facing two felony charges for possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, plus two more felony charges for possession of a weapon by a felon.

Jail records indicate Jason was busted with two guns, including a Glock 19 pistol and a mini Draco AK47 semi-automatic pistol.

We reached out to Jason's camp ... so far, no word back.

The man suspected of killing the stepdaughter of UFC fighter Walt Harris is now accused of going ballistic in jail last month ... allegedly attacking and biting officers in a fit of rage.

According to court records obtained by multiple media outlets this week, officials say Ibraheem Yazeed -- who's been charged with capital murder in the death of 19-year-old Aniah Blanchard -- acted out after he was being escorted back to his jail cell on March 23.

Officials say 3 corrections officers were handling Yazeed at the Lee County Detention Center in Alabama when he became combative.

Yazeed allegedly refused to enter his cell ... and when one of the officers attempted to tase the 30-year-old, he began swinging and kicking.

When other officers arrived to help subdue Yazeed ... he bit one of them in the leg, according to court docs.

Yazeed has now had a 2nd-degree assault charge added on to his case over the incident.

As we previously reported, Yazeed is accused of kidnapping Blanchard at an Auburn gas station in October and killing her.

Trick Daddy had a white powdery substance tucked away in a dollar bill when cops pulled him over in Miami ... and then he bombed his field sobriety test.

TMZ's obtained bodycam footage of the rapper's arrest for cocaine possession and driving under the influence ... and you can clearly see the moment police discover what they say is cocaine residue on the inside of a dollar bill.

As you can see in the video ... cops are counting Trick Daddy's money on the trunk of his rental car when a white powdery substance starts falling like snow out of a crumpled dollar bill.

As we reported ... Trick Daddy was busted back in January and was booked for DUI and cocaine possession.

In the bodycam footage, Trick Daddy appears to have bloodshot eyes and slurred speech. Cops ask him if he had anything to drink, and after saying he'd had a few drinks a couple hours ago, TD bombs a field sobriety test in a parking lot.

Joe Exotic uttered the famous line, "I am never gonna financially recover from this," on 'Tiger King' ... which is probably how the owner of one of Joe's flamboyant shirts feels after he got hoodwinked on eBay.

It was almost official -- the pink sequin button-up top Joe wore on episode 2 of the Netflix docuseries closed on the auction site Friday at $10,400 after receiving 43 bids from 21 bidders. The opening bid was $650 on April 12, but things really escalated in the final 2 days.

That probably should have been a red flag, as the shirt's seller, Vincent Baran, tells TMZ ... the winner of the auction claims he was hacked and not bidding himself, and will not be paying for the shirt.

Baran's still hoping to turn a big profit on the item, though ... he's now re-listed the piece of Exotic memorabilia at a buy-now price of $10,300 -- or best offer -- until May 17.

We broke the story ...  Vince told us he came across the Exotic artifact when he noticed Joe's old stomping grounds, The Greater Wynnewood (G.W.) Zoo, was selling several of his shirts on Facebook.

Baran says he managed to buy the pink shirt from Joe's ex-business partner -- Jeff Lowe, who now runs the zoo -- for just $100, and he was initially hoping to get $650 or more for it ... based on what some other Joe Exotic wardrobe items have sold for online.

So, cashing out at above $10k would have been an unprecedented new high -- that's enough to buy a few tigers cubs, after all -- and as the saying goes ... if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Good luck, Vince.

Before Joe Exotic was known to the world as the Tiger King, he desperately tried his hand at being a "Wolf King" ... but he got dethroned after a very short reign.

TMZ's learned Joe Exotic got his hands on 28 gray wolves back in early 2018 after a so-called "petting zoo" in Minneapolis was forced to give up the animals following an unfavorable ruling at trial over a lawsuit alleging it violated the federal Endangered Species Act.

The Animal Legal Defense Fund was behind that lawsuit ... and it didn't take long before the ALDF had Joe in its crosshairs. Christopher Berry, the ALDF attorney behind the lawsuit, tells TMZ ... he fired off a legal letter to Joe accusing him of also violating that law.

The letter accuses Joe of transporting the wolves from Minnesota to Oklahoma, which is one of the ESA violations because it's against federal law to transport protected animals across state lines without a permit.

The lawyer also accused Joe of trying to sell protected animals ... Berry pointed out the commercial sale of a protected animal violates federal law. Berry also alleged Joe tried to sell at least 4 wolf pups on social media.

And, get this ... Berry offered to resolve the issue amicably, but Joe wasn't having it. Berry tells us a few days after Joe received the letter, Joe was pissed off to the point he called Berry and chewed him out in a profanity-laced rant ... denying he broke any laws.

We're told, Joe ultimately admitted trying to get a handle on wolves proved way more challenging than he anticipated. One example ... the wolves often clawed out of their enclosures and ran amok at Joe's G.W. Exotic Animal Park.

Berry says Joe ultimately turned the wolves over to Lockwood Animal Rescue Center ... an animal protection org. in Ventura, CA. After complying with Berry's letter, we're told the ALDF took no further legal action against Joe.

As for how Joe's facility got selected to receive the wolves ... we're told the Minnesota petting zoo was desperate to find the wolves new homes, but irresponsibly sent 28 of the as many as 60 wolves to Joe, who clearly was not equipped to care for them.

But, just when ya think there's a happy ending ... think again. Berry says only 25 of the 28 wolves at Joe's facility were transferred to Lockwood. He says one of the wolves died from an infection at Joe's park. As for the two remaining wolves ... they went MIA and no one ever figured out what happened to them.

Then again, Joe Exotic's been accused of heinous acts against animals.

Joe Exotic is in a desperate situation ... he's isolated in the bowels of a federal prison, unable to fight the government in his $89 million wrongful imprisonment lawsuit, and he's begging the judge for access to a computer and the law library.

The "Tiger King" star just filed a handwritten legal doc, telling the judge he's running out of time to respond to the government's legal docs in the civil lawsuit. Joe says he can't respond without the proper tools, so he wants another 30 days.

Joe says he's been isolated at the Federal Medical Center ... he can't phone anyone, email them ... he has no access to the outside world.

This syncs up with our TMZ Investigation, which aired on Fox last Monday. We were told he was in isolation because inmates from the previous facility where Joe was housed tested positive for the virus. The prison disputes it, but for some reason, he's still in quarantine. His people say Joe is virus-free.

Joe is also appealing his conviction. He has some interesting arguments ... among them, "did the prosecutor throw in animal abuse charges in the murder-for-hire trial just to unfairly prejudice the jury so he'd get convicted?" And, if you saw the special, it's interesting that "hitman" and star prosecution witness Allen Glover revealed a bias by saying he delivered payback to Joe and wished he could have done more to hurt him.

Tekashi 6ix9ine is embracing his role as a rat ... or so it seems based on what he told Tory Lanez.

So, here's what went down ... Tory was hosting his Quarantine Radio Monday night on Instagram Live when, out of nowhere, you see Tekashi's IG handle pop up in the group chat. Tekashi typed, "lemme play this new s**t or ima snitch on u. you not even from America u from Canada."

Ya gotta watch Tory's reaction. It's pretty epic. Unclear if Tekashi actually has some new music he wants to show the masses, but now that he's on house arrest it's not so far fetched to think he's got something up his sleeve.

As for snitching on Tory ... it's unclear what about. Tory, btw, just last week had his Instagram Live session privileges restored by IG, which banned Tory from going Live after some nudity appeared in one of his sessions.

But no beef seems to be brewing between the rappers. Tekashi and Tory have some history ... good history. Tekashi's 2018 track "Kika" on the "Dummy Boy" album features Tory.

Again ... Tekashi just seems to be embracing the snitch role.