City: Injured linebacker drunk when shot

San Diego -- Injured San Diego Chargers linebacker Steve Foley had drunk "a staggering amount" of alcohol the night he was shot by a police officer, a city attorney says.

During a trial in which Foley is suing the city of Coronado, Calif., for unjustly ending his National Football League career, the city's defense attorney said Foley's blood alcohol content of 0.21 percent was nearly three times the legal limit when he was seen getting behind the wheel of a "muscle car" and driving off, the San Diego Union Tribune reported Tuesday.

Foley was followed by rookie police officer Aaron Mansker, 23, who was off-duty and out of uniform at the time. Both sides in the case agree that a confrontation between Mansker and Foley in a cul-de-sac resulted in two gunshots to Foley's knee and hip, ending his NFL career. Foley says the shooting wasn't justified, and is suing the city of Coronado for $5.5 million in future earnings.

"This man had an awful lot to drink -- a staggering amount, a dangerous amount," attorney Norman Watkins said of Foley on the second day of a civil trial in San Diego Superior Court, the Union Tribune reported.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International.