Investigation
Kanye West named as suspect in battery investigation
The rapper was en route to watch his children’s basketball game when the alleged incident occurred.
Kanye West has reportedly been named as a suspect in a battery investigation after he allegedly ripped a woman’s phone out of her hand and threw it after she refused to stop filming him.
In the video recording, the rapper notices he is being followed after leaving his daughter North’s basketball game.
“You didn’t have to run up on me like that,” he says while confronting the woman. “If I say stop, stop with your cameras!”
The woman claims she could film him because he is “a celebrity”. Kanye then allegedly reached into her car, grabbed her phone, and threw it. He then hops into an SUV where his reported wife Bianca Censori is waiting for him.
Police involvement
Deputies from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department were called to the scene around 4:30 p.m. and were provided video evidence of the incident. It’s still unclear whether the woman is a professional photographer or just taking videos of West as a citizen.
It’s unknown how long the woman was allegedly filming West before the incident occurred. The unnamed woman was also photographed leaving the sheriff’s department and talking to police officers.
Since then, according to TMZ, West has been named as a suspect in a battery investigation.
More to the incident
According to Page Six, this wasn’t the only time West begged to be left alone that day. In another part of the clip after he had gotten into his car, West pulled up in front of a group of paparazzi who were capturing the entire incident on cameras.
“You want me to be running up on your kids’ games like that?” West told the paparazzi, who tried to defend himself by saying that “there’s a hundred of us.”
“Everybody needs to stop when I see my kids. If I need to see my kids, you can’t photograph me,” West explained. “It’s called human rights.”
The paparazzi said that they were allowed to take his picture because they were all on a public street. Kanye simply stared at him before driving off with his reported new wife, in the passenger seat.
West and Censori were reportedly married just two months after West settled his divorce from Kim Kardashian after seven years of marriage. It’s unclear how long the two had been dating.