NFL player’s brother is charged with murder after mother found dead

Arizona Cardinals defensive tackle Calais Campbell (93) during an NFL football game against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Nov. 23, 2025, in Glendale. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri, File)

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ATLANTA — A brother of NFL player Calais Campbell has been charged with murder after police found their 71-year-old mother dead at her home in Atlanta during a welfare check. His family told police he struggled with mental illness.

Arrest warrants say Nateal Campbell’s throat was cut and Ciarre Campbell was found with a knife. Officers found her unresponsive when they arrived at around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to a police statement.

Ciarre Campbell, 41, was booked into the Fulton County Jail, where he was being held without bond, and waived his initial court hearing Wednesday on charges including aggravated assault and murder. A lawyer listed for him in online court records did not immediately return an email and voicemail seeking comment on the charges.

In a 911 call released by police, an unidentified man can be heard asking for a wellness check. He tells the dispatcher that he is trying to get inside his mother’s house with his brother and sister-in-law. He says they can see another brother, who is “mentally ill” and lives with their mom, inside the home. The caller says the brother inside had said their mother left, but a neighbour’s camera footage shows she didn’t.

Police records show that before Tuesday, officers had received at least nine calls for service to that address since September for a variety of reasons, including a fight in progress, a suspicious person and an earlier welfare check.

According to a police incident report, a sister of Ciarre Campbell called police on April 24 and said her brother was inside the home and had “started a fire to rid the house of the demons.” The sister told an officer that her mother lived there but had not been at the house for a week because Ciarre Campbell “has overtaken the home.”

Neighbours called the police on multiple occasions to report disturbances, and Nateal Campbell told an officer in mid-April that her son had not been taking medication prescribed to treat schizophrenia, reports show.

The Campbell family issued a statement asking for privacy while they deal with “overwhelming grief.”

“We are devastated to share that the Campbell Family has lost its matriarch, Mrs. Nateal Campbell,” the family statement said. “While the details of her passing are still being investigated, we take comfort in knowing she is reunited with our father, her beloved Chuck, and in the arms of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.”

A defensive lineman for the Baltimore Ravens, Calais Campbell is entering his 19th NFL season after signing a one-year, US$5.5 million contract in April. He is the oldest active defensive player in the NFL going into the 2026 season. He will be 40 on Sept. 1.

The 2017 first-team AP All-Pro selection has been voted to the Pro Bowl six times in a career that started as a second-round pick in 2008 with the Arizona Cardinals.

The former Miami Hurricane spent 10 seasons with the Cardinals and also played in Jacksonville, Atlanta and Miami.

Campbell has 117 career sacks in 278 games, including 259 starts.

Kate Brumback, The Associated Press