Suit: Patriots’ Hernandez shot man in face in Florida

MIAMI – New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, already connected to a homicide victim in Massachusetts, is being sued in South Florida by a man claiming Hernandez shot him in the face after they argued at a strip club.

The lawsuit filed late Wednesday by 30-year-old Alexander Bradley comes as police in New England investigate the death of 27-year-old semipro football player Odin Lloyd. Lloyd’s body was found in an industrial park near Hernandez’s home in North Attleborough, Mass. Lloyd’s family has said he had some connection to Hernandez but would not elaborate.

In his federal lawsuit seeking at least $100,000 in damages, Bradley claims he and Hernandez were with a group in February at Tootsie’s club in Miami when the two got into an argument. Later, as they were driving to Palm Beach County, Bradley claims Hernandez shot him with a handgun, causing him to lose his right eye.

Bradley, who is from Connecticut, also suffers from jaw pain, headaches, permanent injury to his right hand and arm and will probably need further surgery, according to the lawsuit. He has already undergone facial reconstruction surgery and has plates and screws in the right side of his face.

Bradley “will require extensive medical care and treatment for the rest of his life,” the four-page lawsuit says.

Bradley did not mention Hernandez in a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office report at the time. Bradley, found shot and bleeding Feb. 13 in an alley behind a John Deere store, insisted to investigators he did not know who shot him and gave only a vague description of possible assailants. A store employee found Bradley after hearing a shot, but the store’s video surveillance system wasn’t working.