O J Simpson arrested over 'armed robbery' of memorabilia dealers

Police in Las Vegas arrested O J Simpson on armed robbery charges yesterday, saying he and a group of associates burst into a room at a casino resort hotel to reclaim sports memorabilia that the one-time American football star – and world-famous murder defendant – said were rightfully his.

Two days after the police announced Mr Simpson was a suspect in the case, they picked him up without incident at the Palms hotel where he had been staying for the past several days. Several plainclothes officers entered the hotel, along with robbery detectives, and emerged shortly afterwards when the hotel's security guards produced their famous guest. "He was very co-operative," a police spokesman said.

The police said at least one other person had been arrested in the case, and as many as six others remained under suspicion.

Mr Simpson, who lives in Florida and was ostensibly visiting Las Vegas to attend a friend's wedding, was taken to a police building. It was not immediately clear what would happen next. A lawyer was reported to be on the way to see him, presumably to pay bail and get him provisionally released.

The alleged robbery took place on Thursday night at another casino resort, the Palace Station, where two memorabilia dealers called Alfred Beardsley and Bruce Fromong were staying.

According to accounts Mr Simpson has given to reporters, he arranged a meeting with the two dealers through an auctioneer they both knew. He then turned up at their room accompanied by a group of "golfing buddies" to reclaim items he believed to have been stolen from him, including sports trophies and photographs taken by his murdered former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson.

He has denied reports that any of his friends were armed. However, police said yesterday they had recovered two firearms and other evidence at a private residence in Las Vegas. The other man they have arrested, Walter Alexander of Arizona, was also charged on multiple counts of armed robbery and was said by police of being one of two men carrying a firearm.

Many questions remain about the bizarre incident. Mr Fromong has since described himself as a good friend of Mr Simpson's – something Mr Simpson himself has refused to confirm – while Mr Beardsley told the Associated Press he wanted any charges against Mr Simpson dropped. It appears, however, that the initial complaint about the incident came from them. Mr Beardsley has not formally dropped his complaint, the police said yesterday.

It now appears likely, though, that Mr Simpson will face a full-blown criminal trial for the second time. Although he was already a household name in the US, he shot to international prominence as the first celebrity murder defendant of the 24-hour rolling news era and controversially managed to beat the rap that he murdered his estranged wife and her friend, Ronald Goldman.

Approached by journalists at his Las Vegas hotel before his arrest, Simpson sounded typically breezy about the new trouble brewing for him. "I'm O.J. Simpson," he told the Los Angeles Times. "How am I going to think that I'm going to rob somebody and get away with it?"