Andrew Wiltse has now reportedly been arrested in his hometown of Drummon Island, Michigan following his recent mental health struggles. Wiltse was at one point a very successful BJJ competitor and a very well-respected coach as well, but has not been active in the sport since 2021. He first rose to prominence during his journey through the colored belt ranks, winning the IBJJF No Gi World Championship at every belt level before being promoted to black belt in 2019. That was around the time that he really broke through to the highest level as a key member of Pedigo Submission Fighting due to being highlighted by FloGrappling at the time.
All throughout that time, Wiltse was pretty open about the fact that he suffered with bipolar disorder. He had it under control throughout this period but it was in 2021 that he disappeared from the competition scene and went through ‘a pretty public manic episode’. Things started to look up after a little while though and Wiltse revealed that he was coming out of the other side of his issues. Things took a bit of a turn recently though, as Wiltse began to post videos on his social media accounts that were similar to those that he shared during that period between 2021 and 2023.
Fans were naturally concerned about Wiltse’s wellbeing, specifically because of the nature of some of his posts on social media. Now Andrew Wiltse’s brother, Bird Wiltse, has revealed that that he was arrested in Drummond Island, Michigan and that he believes it’s for a psychological evaluation. Wiltse also allegedly had some warrants outstanding, and now that a judge has been able to see all the relevant evidence, but there’s no news yet on what the outcome of that has been. Bird Wiltse shared the update on his brother’s arrest in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
