On Tuesday an Instagram photo went viral, showing the bruised and bloodied face of Delicia Cordon, the estranged girlfriend of Buffalo Bills star LeSean McCoy.
The Instagram posting, and a later Facebook post, claimed that McCoy had been behind the beating of Cordon. Also on Tuesday, the police in Milton, Georgia, the Atlanta suburb where McCoy and Cordon shared a home, reported that there had been a home invasion and assault on the street where the two lived. That incident, a lawyer for Cordon confirmed, was at the McCoy home and Cordon was the victim. (McCoy was in Florida at the time of the crime.)
As happens with news bounding about in a social media world, fact and fiction can sometimes merge into a blur. Given that, we will try to answer here what we do know about the incident and what precipitated it.
Who are LeSean McCoy and Delicia Cordon?
McCoy is a running back for the Buffalo Bills, and widely considered the best player on the team. (He could be en route to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.) McCoy, who turned 30 Thursday, played six seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles and has spent the past three with the Bills. Six times he has been selected for the Pro Bowl, an annual all-star game featuring the best players in the National Football League.
Cordon, 34, has had a career as a model and fashion designer. How successful she has been is difficult to judge. She has a large following — more than 600,000 followers — on Instagram, where she sometimes models her clothes.
According to media reports, McCoy and Cordon have been dating since 2016.
While both have their large social media followings, people are finding moments in the past histories of the two individuals to raise questions about their character.
McCoy was once in a bar fight with two off-duty Philadelphia police officers.He was not criminally charged, a prosecutorial decision that angered that city's police.
The officers alleged McCoy instigated the fight; he said he was trying to break up a brawl. The officers have sued McCoy; the lawsuit is still pending.
Cordon previously had another strained relationship with Marcus Vick, who had a very brief NFL career. Also, while living in Miami, Cordon accused another former boyfriend of assaulting her. He denied the charges, and, court papers show, alleged she had assaulted him three times. "I want her to leave me alone as I fear for my life and safety," he wrote. The criminal case ultimately was not prosecuted.
Were McCoy and Cordon still dating at time of the assault?
The two shared a home since the fall of 2016, when McCoy bought the house, but McCoy recently was trying to have her evicted. The relationship appears to have been one of strange peaks and valleys. There are loving social media photos of the two together, coupled with the fact that in July 2017 Cordon accused McCoy on social media of cheating on her with an escort.
It's not a coincidence that, within days after that posting, McCoy sought to have Cordon kicked out of the house he owns. In court papers filed in early July 2017, McCoy claimed the two were "no longer in relationship" and that Cordon had lived in the home "rent-free ... for five months."
Police reports show that McCoy also was moving Cordon's belongings out of the house in July 2017, the day after filing the eviction papers. When police went to the home, he said Cordon had followed him to Las Vegas and accused him of cheating. He said he was worried she would take items from the home and make "false accusations against him."
"He stated that he was trying to be very careful being around her given the climate of domestic abuse in his profession," the report states. The police told McCoy he could not remove the items until the eviction was resolved.
That particular eviction proceeding appears to have stalled within weeks, and was not immediately pursued further by McCoy. In court papers, Tanya Mitchell Graham, an attorney for Cordon, claims the two reconciled and, around Memorial Day of this year, were even discussing marriage. On May 29, McCoy gave Cordon "a substantial gift," the court papers say, with no additional information about the gift.
What was the status of the eviction?
Clearly, if McCoy was thinking of marriage around Memorial Day 2018, he quickly had second thoughts. On June 1 he tried to have furniture and other items removed from the home while both he and Cordon were away. Cordon became aware of a moving truck at the house and alerted police. McCoy's mother, who was in Georgia to help take items from the home, told police that her son planned to sell the house and he was willing to let Cordon and her two children from an earlier relationship stay there.
Police again told McCoy that to take items from the home he would need to take action in court.
On June 6 McCoy again filed court papers trying to evict Cordon and her children, claiming that Cordon is "an ex-girlfriend ... and refuses to leave."
McCoy had, according to documents, not been at the home since late May, when he attended Buffalo Bills' training activities. He then went to Florida, which is where he was at the time of the crimes.
Meanwhile, the eviction was proceeding through court. It was scheduled for a hearing July 10, the day of the crime, but on July 9 Graham asked for a delay because her mother had taken ill. The request was granted, and a court date is now scheduled for Aug. 14.
Just where is Milton, Georgia, and this home?
Milton is a suburb 30 miles north of Atlanta, incorporated only 12 years ago. Its median household income is around $110,000 — almost twice the national average.
McCoy and Cordon live on Hickory Pass, a short treed street that has only two other homes. Their five-bedroom home is nearly 6,000 square feet and, with its 1.1-acre property, is valued at around $1 million. McCoy bought the property in October 2016 for $822,000.
What happened on July 10 at the home?
Let's tackle this chronologically, because of the oddity of how the crime burst into the public spotlight.
Around 10 a.m. on July 10, Mia Michelle Boykin, a woman saying she is a friend of Cordon, posted the Instagram photo of the beaten Delicia Cordon.
"I can’t believe you did this to my best friend! YOUR KARMA IS GOING TO BE SO REAL!" Boykin wrote in the post, which she later deleted. (She posted that she was asked to delete the post by Cordon's lawyer.)
This is where the social media universe becomes hard to harness. It's probably safe to assume that many newsrooms were trying to figure out just how to handle a social media claim that seemed to accuse McCoy of domestic violence. (It also accused him of child abuse, pet abuse, and steroid use. McCoy has never faced these accusations before. NFL players are regularly tested for the presence of performance-enhancing drugs and McCoy has never failed a test.)
Shortly after the posting, the Buffalo Bills acknowledged that the team was aware of the allegation, had reached out to the NFL, and was investigating. McCoy also responded in a statement: "For the record, the totally baseless and offensive claims made against me are completely false,” McCoy wrote. “Furthermore, I have not had any direct contact with any of the people involved in months."
Around 11 a.m. another Cordon friend, Cicely Billups, posted the same brutal photo on Facebook. She did not name McCoy but wrote: "Sending dudes in her house to pistol whip and rob her!! For what?! Now the world knows what we know!!! You will pay for this."
(The Instagram posting from Boykin did not allege McCoy beat Cordon, but did point responsibility at him.)
What do police say happened?
On the afternoon of July 10 the Milton Police Department provided substance to the social media claims, acknowledging in a statement that officers had responded to a home invasion on Hickory Pass at 3:18 a.m. that very day.
In a statement, the police wrote: "The preliminary investigation indicates that this residence was specifically targeted by the suspect or suspects, and not a random incident.
"When officers arrived they found one victim who had been physically assaulted by a lone intruder. During the altercation, the suspect demanded specific items from the victim. An adult female victim was treated and released at North Fulton Regional Hospital. A second adult female victim also sustained a minor injury during the incident. Milton detectives are continuing their investigation."
Later, the police released the formal "investigative report," which noted that there was no forced entry at the home and that three specific crimes were under investigation — armed robbery, aggravated assault with a firearm, and burglary.
And a dispatch report from the police call included the odd fact that Cordon's 16-year-old son was missing at the time of the call and a sheet was tied from his second-floor window. He was apparently quickly located, and took an Uber back to the house, records show.
Given the media attention to the allegations, the police have made clear that, if new information arises, it will be released to the public and media at the same time. A police spokesman noted in an email to the Democrat and Chronicle that there has been a "high demand of open records requests ... relating to this case."
What does Cordon say happened?
Cordon herself has not granted interviews, but her attorney, Graham, said that McCoy and Cordon were now estranged and that McCoy had been asking for jewelry back he bought for her. She refused.
The assailant beat her with a firearm after trying to steal jewelry from her, Graham said. Another woman at the home was, as police said, also struck, the statement from Graham said.
The statement from Graham was released on July 10 and also said, "Since this morning's attack on Ms. Cordon, Mr. McCoy has not contacted her to check on her condition or to see what was going on at the residence."
There has been much talk about the jewelry. Why?
Both Graham's statement and a police report mention McCoy's apparent desire to get jewelry returned to him from Cordon. Again, let's do this chronologically.
As mentioned earlier, police went to the home in July 2017 when McCoy was first trying to get Cordon out of the home. He then told police that jewelers sometimes loan individuals "high end jewelry to wear for events."
McCoy said that "Cordon had some of these jewelry items and had not returned them" despite him asking her "multiple times" to do so.
The July 10, 2018, statement from Graham also mentions that McCoy had been asking Cordon to return some jewelry. "The assailant demanded specific items of jewelry that had been previously gifted to Ms. Cordon by Mr. McCoy, which Mr. McCoy had requested back on many occasions," the statement said. McCoy had also said Cordon "could be robbed because the jewelry was expensive," the statement said.
When Cordon was unable to get a bracelet off her wrist, the assailant struck her with the pistol, Graham alleged.
Clearly, these allegations hint that McCoy may have had a role in the robbery. That said, Graham has also told the media that there has been no physical violence between the two. And, it's worth repeating, McCoy has denied the allegations.
What evidence do police have?
Police, unsurprisingly, are not discussing the ongoing investigation beyond the statement and reports released thus far. There was a surveillance system at the home. In fact, the system could be accessed by cellphone and that's how Cordon, who was in Virginia June 1, discovered the moving truck was then at the home. That realization prompted her call to police to stop the removal.
Graham claims that after June 1 McCoy changed the security system and service provider and did not give Cordon "any information about the new security system" or how to "arm or disarm the alarm."
This is conjecture, but we can assume police have checked the security system. If it was disarmed, they surely are investigating by whom and why it was rendered inoperable.
The Democrat and Chronicle has reached out to the two neighbors on McCoy's street to ask whether they may have had security systems pointed toward the street. One refused to talk and the other has yet to respond.
Similarly, there may be surveillance cameras from other nearby homes. Given the early hour of the crimes, some camera somewhere may well have picked up any vehicles going to the home. And, there are the victims — Cordon and a friend — and their testimony for police.
The fact that there was "no forced entry" will also be a question for police to investigate, questioning just how the intruder got into the home.
Again, police are not talking, but social media, as is its wont, is awash with theories. There is no surprise as to what they are, and — again, as is in character with social media — the divisions are apparent.
There are those who hold McCoy responsible, backing the claims that he would stoop to a robbery to get her out of the home, and those who want to believe that Cordon managed to stage the entire event, even willing to get beaten as part of the ruse.
It could turn out that both theories are rubbish; it's just too early to tell.
