Former American football star O.J. Simpson was questioned by Las Vegas police after a sports memorabilia dealer accused the former star athlete and murder defendant of robbing him at gunpoint, police and others said on Friday.
Simpson was quizzed late Thursday following reports of a robbery from a guest's room at the Palace Station casino, Las Vegas Police Department Captain James Dillon told reporters.
"Police responded to a call from a person alleging he had been the victim of an armed robbery," Dillon said. "The victim stated that one of the suspects was OJ Simpson."
Simpson was later released without charge but was continuing to help police with their investigation, Dillon said, adding that items allegedly taken were "sports-related products."
Las Vegas police were looking for at least two people who were with Simpson in the hotel room during the confrontation.
The alleged victim was identified by celebrity news website TMZ.com as Alfred Beardsley, a collector of sports memorabilia.
Beardsley told the website that Simpson and a group of men entered his room pretending to be customers. The two men with Simpson pulled guns during the robbery, Beardsley said.
Dillon said detectives could not confirm that weapons were drawn in the room and were studying casino video surveillance tapes.
Simpson, one of the most famous American football players of his generation during the 1970s, was the prime suspect in the brutal 1994 murders of estranged wife Nicole Brown-Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman.
Simpson, who always has vehemently denied the killings, was acquitted of the slayings after a racially charged Los Angeles trial in 1995, a verdict that was greeted with widespread outrage across America.
The former sports star was subsequently found liable for the deaths in a 1997 civil suit and was ordered to pay damages to the victims' families totaling 33.5 million dollars.
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