A former NFL player has been charged with first-degree attempted murder after police said he shot a woman in Colorado this week.

Justin Bannan, 40, was a fifth-round draft pick for the Buffalo Bills in 2002 and played for five teams, including the Denver Broncos, until he retired in 2013.

Bannan was arrested on Oct. 16 in Boulder after police arrived at Black Lab Sports to investigate a reported shooting. According to Bannan’s LinkedIn, he’s the co-founder of the company.

The female victim works as an acupuncturist in the building. She works for Element 6, a separate company in the building, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by the Boulder Daily Camera.

The woman was unlocking her room in the building when Bannan, who was inside the room, shot her in the shoulder.

Bannan was found by police officers with a bag with two loaded guns inside, an extra magazine, and a $20 bill that tested positive for cocaine.

Banned told officers he “didn’t mean to shoot her.”

Bannan was “sweating profusely” and “making statements about the Russian Mafia being after him,” according to the affidavit, reported ABC 7. He also made said the woman “did not deserve that,” and that “she was a good person.”

Buffalo Bills defensive lineman Justin Bannan on the sideline during a 2005 game. (Mark Konezny/NFLPhotoLibrary)

He allegedly told the woman after shooting her: “I’m sorry, the Russian Mafia is after me.”

During the drive to the police station, Bannan said he ditched his cell phone because someone was using it to track him and claimed to have hydrocephalus.

According to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, hydrocephalus “is a condition in which excess cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) builds up within the ventricles (fluid-containing cavities) of the brain and may increase pressure within the head.”

“Although hydrocephalus is often described as ‘water on the brain,’ the ‘water’ is actually CSF, a clear fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord. CSF has three crucial functions: 1) it acts as a ‘shock absorber’ for the brain and spinal cord; 2) it acts as a vehicle for delivering nutrients to the brain and removing waste; and 3) it flows between the cranium and spine to regulate changes in pressure within the brain,” it added.

Bannan appeared in court on Thursday. Prosecutor Mark Grimaldi, the Boulder County deputy district attorney, said the judge shouldn’t lower the $500,000 bond set in the warrant.

“It’s pretty clear why Mr. Bannan presents a risk to the community,” Grimaldi said, reported the Daily Camera.

Bannan’s attorney, David Moorhead, however, said the bond should be lowered, arguing his client wasn’t a flight risk.

Boulder County Judge Kristy Martinez opted not to lower the bond, saying the facts of the case suggested “significant concerns about the safety of the community.”

Bann’s next hearing is slated for Oct. 22.

Follow Zachary on Twitter: @zackstieber

• Alexander Krushelnitsky tests positive for meldonium
• Set to be stripped of mixed curling bronze, won with wife

The Russian curler Alexander Krushelnitsky has been formally charged with a doping offence by the Court of Arbitration for Sport after testing positive for the banned substance meldonium. He is now likely to be stripped of his mixed curling bronze medal, won with his wife Anastasia Bryzgalova last week, and there are also growing questions about the International Olympic Committee’s decision to allow 168 Russians to compete here under a neutral flag despite the country’s massive state-sponsored doping programme in Sochi.

But as Krushelnitsky was leaving the Winter Olympics on Monday morning his Olympic Athletes of Russia team-mates were insisting that he was innocent. “We were all shocked when we found out,” said Viktoria Moiseeva. “Of course we very much hope it was some kind of mistake. With us it’s not faster, higher, stronger; it’s about being more accurate. I can’t imagine what kind of drugs you could use in curling … so it’s very hard to believe.”

Krushelnitsky has told Russian officials he fears a team-mate who was not selected for the Winter Olympics spiked his drink with meldonium at a training camp before he travelled to South Korea. The drug, which was banned in 2016, led to Russian tennis player and former world No 1 Maria Sharapova being barred from competition for 15 months.

Russian curling federation president Dmitry Svishchev said Russian curlers had been tested on 22 January before flying out to South Korea and the tests were negative. “I have known these guys for many years,” he said. “Only a crazy person takes banned substances before a competition, before the Olympics. It’s a strange story. It raises a lot of questions.”

Russian Olympic delegation spokesman Konstantin Vybornov added that he would not comment on the charge until the results of Krushelnitsky’s “B” sample were announced. He also accused foreign media outlets of running “misleading” reports, but did not give further details. “I spoke to a person who previously headed the anti-doping laboratory, and he said that curlers don’t need meldonium. In his opinion, this is some kind of political act. ‘You are victims of conspiracy,’” he said. “Do I believe that? I don’t know,” Andrei Sozin, the Russian curling federation vice-president, told Komsomolskaya Pravda, a pro-Kremlin newspaper. “The federation gives its word: we don’t know how this scandal has arisen. [Doping] contradicts the federation’s principles.”

In December the Russian Olympic Committee was banned from the Winter Olympics and ordered to pay $15m in costs in after making what the IOC called an “unprecedented attack on the integrity of the Olympic Games and sport” following a massive state-sponsored doping programme that corrupted the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014.

Russian athletes were only allowed to compete in Pyeongchang under a neutral flag providing they were cleared by an anti-doping panel. However the IOC had left open the possibility that they would be able to march under their own flag at Sunday’s closing ceremony. That now looks an increasingly slim prospect. The IOC said it would make its decision at an executive board meeting on Saturday.

“I hope it’s not true … for the sport of curling,” said Norwegian team skipper Thomas Ulsrud. “If it’s true I feel really sad for the Norwegian team who worked really hard and ended up in fourth place and just left for Norway and they aren’t even here.”

However the Danish skip Madeleine Dupont appeared unconvinced that performance enhancing drugs would help in a sport such as curling. “I think most people will laugh,” she said. “And say ‘what do you possibly need doping for?’”

The Court of Arbitration Anti-Doping Division confirmed Krushelnitsky’s case had been passed to them in a statement. “Further to a request from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the Cas ADD has initiated a procedure involving the athlete Aleksandr Krushelnitckii (mixed curling; OAR),” it said. “No hearing date has been fixed yet and no further information will be provided at this point.”