June 11, 2023
'RuPaul's Drag Race' Season 2 Winner Tyra Sanchez Arrested after Threat to Shoot Police Officer
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
"RuPaul's Drag Race" Season 2 winner Tyra Sanchez allegedly struggled with a police officer and threatened to shoot him, leading to Sanchez's arrest in Starke, Florida. The incident marks the second time Sanchez has been arrested; in 2020 the drag performer faced vandalism charges in Atlanta related to a spray-painted message on an apartment building.
TMZ said that an arrest report seen by the outlet detailed how "Sanchez – whose real name is James William Ross IV – got into a minor car crash with another driver" in May. When police arrived, the arrest report documents, "she jumped out of the car and started yelling at the cop."
An officer attempted to de-escalate the situation, the arrest report recounted, but things only got worse, and at one point "Tyra tried to reach into her car, at which point the officer put her in a bear hug," TMZ relayed. The officer "eventually deployed a taser, but it did squat to stop her."
TMZ also recounts that "when the cop tried to slap on handcuffs, she allegedly threatened to shoot the officer." The arrest report says that Sanchez took off on foot, but the escape attempt was short-lived; the "Drag Race" alum was soon "arrested for assault on a law enforcement officer and resisting without violence."
UK newspaper the Daily Mail noted that the drag star's latest brush with the law follows the incident in 2020 when, according to "a spokesperson for the Atlanta Police Department," officers there "responded to a call at an apartment complex, where someone had spray-painted the words 'do not move here' across the building". Charges of "criminal damage to the property" were brought against Sanchez, the newspaper detailed.
According to TMZ, Sanchez resided in the building at the time, and was in arrears on the rent.
News reports recalled that the "Drag Race" Season Two winner took home a $25,000 prize for the victory in 2010. A decade later, Sanchez retired from drag performance, but 2022 saw a return in the form of an OnlyFans account and a new stage name: King Tyra.
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.
