Brian Blades Still Can’t Talk About Incident

Brian Blades, the only witness to the Wednesday morning shooting death of his cousin, Charles Blades, remained too griefstricken to speak to Plantation, Fla., police for a third consecutive day.

But a report issued by Plantation police regarding a family dispute between Bennie Blades - Brian’s brother - and the mother of their daughter seems to link the two incidents, although police have not yet tied them together.

The report, along with statements made by Brian Blades in a frantic 911 call early Wednesday morning, all but relate one with the other.Meanwhile, friends and relatives will gather at Charles Blades’ this morning in North Miami.

Charles Blades, who lived in Opa-locka, was 34.

“It was a real tragic accident,” Bennie Blades, 28, said. “Anytime something tragic happens in the family, it affects everybody.”

Added Seattle Seahawks and former Miami coach Dennis Erickson: “It’s a human tragedy. Football has nothing to do with it. My concern is for Brian Blades as a person, not as a football player, and what he has to deal with, being around an accident like that.”

The shooting is being investigated as a homicide.

“Here, the word homicide doesn’t mean you committed a crime,” said Charles Morton, chief of the prosecutor’s homicide division. “There is unlawful homicide, like murder or manslaughter, and there is lawful, justifiable or excusable homicide - meaning accidental of without any criminal intent, like self-defense.”