How ex-Suns player Cam Payne’s 911 call ended in his own arrest

Early the morning of June 14, former Suns guard Cameron Payne was arrested by Scottsdale police and charged with providing a false name and making a false report. A month later, the details of his arrest have been released.

Payne played for the Suns for four seasons as the primary backup to point guard Chris Paul. He left after the 2022-23 season.

According to the incident report written by officers Kurt Farner and Joseph Trapasso, police responded to Payne's home in Scottsdale after the NBA player himself called 911 amid an argument with his girlfriend. He then allegedly gave police a false name — "Terry Johnson" — despite multiple warnings that he could be arrested for doing so.

Payne ultimately was arrested — but not before telling the officers his real name was Cameron Payne, though he (perhaps sarcastically) claimed that was a fake name, too.

"If you wanna arrest me for telling you a fake name," the report said he then told the officers, "congratulations."

According to the report, police received a 911 call at 2:27 a.m., during which a male voice said, "I need someone to come to my house." The report said the Scottsdale police dispatcher heard yelling in the background, after which the caller hung up. The dispatcher called back, at which point the man on the other line said, "I made a mistake calling."

Farner and Trapasso arrived not long after and were let into the home by Payne to confirm that his girlfriend, identified in the report as Karina Medrano, was OK. Medrano told the officers that Payne called 911 during their argument as a "bluff" to "prove a point" and that she was safe and had no concerns about remaining in the home.

Meanwhile, Payne allegedly repeatedly refused to identify himself. (According to the dispatch log, officers were informed the residence belonged to a Cameron Payne.) The police report said officers explained to him multiple times that he had called them and that they needed his legal name to complete their investigation. Otherwise, Payne could be arrested for interfering with the investigation. Still, Payne refused.

At one point, the report said, Medrano addressed Payne as "Cameron" before telling the officers his name was "Terry Johnson." The report said Payne then gave the officers a fake birthday for "Terry Johnson," which returned no results when police ran a records check. After Payne's arrest, Medrano told officers that "Terry Johnson" was the alias he used when he went out.

At Payne's request, the report said, he and the officers stepped onto his front porch. At that point, Farner wrote, if Payne provided him his real name, "we would literally just leave. I then told him that this is a basic need of a domestic violence investigation, and that he was blowing this whole thing out of proportion by purposely giving us a fake name."

At that point, Farner wrote, Payne "suddenly shouted, 'My name is CAMERON PAYNE.'" When asked if that name was also fake, Payne reportedly said it was. He was then arrested for giving a fake name and for making a false report. Trapasso handcuffed Payne and placed him in a patrol vehicle before checking Payne's identity.

The name came back valid, though police still took Payne to jail for the citations. A Scottsdale police spokesperson did not respond to questions from Phoenix New Times about the incident.

Payne was released from custody later that day. Court records show a pretrial conference in his case is set for Aug. 12.