Singer Chris Brown arrested on weapons charge
Chris Brown. AP FILE PHOTO
LOS ANGELES—Singer Chris Brown was arrested Tuesday in Los Angeles on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, police said, following an hours-long standoff after a woman alleged he pointed a gun at her.
Police said the troubled singer, who has had numerous brushes with the law, was being transported to a police station to be booked on the assault charge.
The Los Angeles Police Department earlier said that officers from the homicide and robbery division, which deals with celebrity cases, headed to Brown’s home after the woman called for help at 3:11 am (1011 GMT).
Brown, 27, took to social media to deny any wrongdoing, daring police to get a search warrant to enter his home in a series of videos posted on Instagram.
READ: Chris Brown mocks police on Instagram in standoff
“When you get the warrant for whatever you need to do, you’re going to walk right up in here and you’re going to see nothing, you idiots,” said a visibly angry Brown.
He voiced support for the Black Lives Matter movement against police brutality, saying: “You’re all the worst gang in the world, the police.”
He claimed that he was sound asleep and was awakened by police and media outside his home.
This image from aerial video provided by KABC-TV shows the home of entertainer Chris Brown with a police vehicle outside, in the Tarzana area of Los Angeles Tuesday, Aug. 30, 32016. Authorities waited for a search warrant outside Brown’s Los Angeles home Tuesday after a getting a woman’s call for help, officials said. Inside, the entertainer, who has a history of legal problems, posted videos to social media declaring his innocence. (KABC-TV via AP)
“So I’m asleep half the damn night, I just wake up, all these (expletive) helicopter choppers is around,” he said.
“There are police out there at the gate… What the (expletive) else do you want from me, bro? I stay out of the way. Take care of my daughter. Do work… At the same time, when I call the police for stalker people that are endangering my life, they don’t come till the next day. Let somebody make a (expletive) allegation about me, oh yeah, the whole (expletive) SWAT team.”
‘You think I wanted this?’
Police by early afternoon had obtained a search warrant and entered the singer’s palatial home, where his attorney was also present.
People who left the home were being searched by police but no one was immediately arrested, spokesman Lieutenant Chris Ramirez said.
The gossip website TMZ reported that Brown had thrown a duffel bag out of a window and that police had recovered a gun as well as drugs.
Baylee Curran, who was crowned Miss California Regional in a beauty pageant this year, identified herself as the caller as she also took to Instagram.
“Do you all honestly think I wanted this and I caused this?” asked Curran, who appeared to be in a moving car.
“If somebody put a gun to your head, what would you do? Call the police,” she said.
She also spoke to TMZ, saying she and a friend went into a hot tub at Brown’s house and that the singer became angry when she admired the jewelry of a member of his entourage.
The R&B singer, who topped the US singles chart with “Run It!” and “Kiss Kiss,” has had years of run-ins with the law.
Most notoriously, he was convicted of beating then girlfriend Rihanna before the 2009 Grammy Awards, forcing the pop singer to miss the music industry’s annual gala.
In 2014, he pleaded guilty to assaulting a man outside a Washington hotel and earlier this year was accused of battery by a woman in Las Vegas.
He was accused last year of fraud in the Philippines for failing to perform a concert, also leading the singer to voice anger on Instagram while he waited to leave the country.
READ: Chris Brown stopped from leaving Manila for skipping PH Arena gig
