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Ex-NFL Player Allegedly Staged A Hate Crime By Trashing His Own Restaurant

   DailyWire.com
Edawn Coughman of the Buccaneers during preseason action between the Washington Redskins and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.
Cliff Welch/Icon SMI/Corbis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Yet another hate-crime hoax attempting to paint President Donald Trump’s supporters as racists.

Former NFL player Edawn Louis Coughman, who played for the Washington Redskins, Dallas Cowboys, and Arizona Cardinals between 2012 and 2016, was caught spray-painting pro-Trump and racist graffiti in his own restaurant in an apparent hate-crime hoax.

The New York Daily News reported that a “maintenance worker at the shopping plaza where Coughman’s establishment is located saw someone burglarizing the restaurant around 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday and called the cops.”

Nearby cops saw a black truck driving without a license plate and pulled it over as a possible suspect. Coughman was driving the truck, and police found several suspicious-looking flat-screen TVs.

Cpl. Michele Pihera of the Gwinnett County Police told WSB-TV that the TV “brackets were still attached and there was still drywall attached to the brackets, meaning, someone took them off very quickly.”

Police showed up at Coughman’s restaurant and found holes in the wall where the TVs appeared to have been removed. They also found graffiti on the walls saying “monkey,” the n-word, and “MAGA” — a reference to President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America Great Again.”

Police also said the paint on the walls was fresh, and Coughman had black spray paint on his hands.

Coughman owns Coughman’s Creamery in Gwinnett County Georgia. Police said the motive for the alleged fake hate crime was not immediately apparent.

“We don’t know if it was financial motivation or what the case is,” Pihera told WSB-TV.

Officers quickly became aware that Coughman had reported the incident to his insurance company before he was pulled over.

“He had reported this incident to his insurance company prior to officers conducting that first pull-over,” Pihera said. “He was attempting to leave that shopping center when our officers conducted that felony stop. Everything lined up for this perfect arrest.”

Coughman now faces three charges, including insurance fraud, making a false report, and driving without a license plate.

The faked hate crime comes months after “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett allegedly faked a hate crime against himself in order to negotiate a bigger salary. Smollett said he went to get a sandwich at 2:00 a.m. during a polar vortex in Chicago when two racist, white Trump supporters recognized him and attacked him. The attackers apparently were wandering the frigid streets with a bottle of bleach and some rope and just happened to recognize Smollett – who is also gay. The men allegedly used racial slurs when attacking Smollett and claimed Chicago was “MAGA country.”

Smollett returned to his friend’s apartment with his food intact and called police. When authorities arrived, he was still wearing the noose the men allegedly wrapped around his neck. In reality, the “attackers” were black men from Nigeria who claimed Smollett paid them to orchestrate the attack against him. They provided a check from Smollett and said he told them to purchase red hats to claim the attack was motivated by Trump’s rhetoric. Smollett is currently trying to get out of repaying Chicago for the resources it expended investigating his claim.

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