No charges will be filed following an incident Wednesday, July 5, in which Britney Spears was allegedly stuck by a security guard for NBA ballplayer Victor Wembanyama, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
“The LVMPD has concluded its investigation of the alleged battery that occurred on July 5, 2023, at 11 p.m., in the 3700 block of Las Vegas Boulevard,” the authorities said in a statement. “No charges will be filed against the person involved.”
Reps for Spears, Wembanyama, and the Spurs did not immediately return Rolling Stone’s requests for comment.
The LVMPD’s case report, reviewed by Rolling Stone, withheld the security guard’s name. “Due to the fact that [name redacted] DID NOT willfully or unlawfully use any force or violence upon Britney and probable cause did not exist an Arrest was not made and a Citation was not given,” the report’s conclusions states.
The police officer who filed the report, John Santo, also described security footage he reviewed. “Detectives and I were able to review surveillance footage of the event which showed Britney going to tap the Spurs player on the shoulder,” he wrote. “When she touched the player [the security guard] pushes her hand off of the player without looking, which causes Britney’s hand to hit herself in the face.”
In video of the incident, obtained via TMZ, Spears appears to tap Wembayama from behind, ostensibly countering his claim that she tried to grab him. The security guard reaches out and hits Spears’ arm, which in turn appears to collide with her face.
Spears’ entertainment manager, Cade Hudson, described the incident to Officer Santo, claiming the guard “back handed Britney in the face with a closed fist knocking her glasses off of her face.” Quaran Smith, identified in the report as a member of Spears’ security team, contradicted this account. “When I asked Smith about [name redacted] hitting Britney in the face with a closed fist he said that it was not a hit or a closed fist and that had pushed Britney’s hand off of the Spurs player without looking and not knowing who was tapping him on the shoulder,” the policeman wrote. “Quaran said that this is a standard response for most security/body guards. Quaran also advised that when [the security guard] came over to talk to Britney about the incident and apologize that they both said sorry to each other and they thought the incident had ended.”
Another member of Spears’ security, Steven Ketter, was unclear on whether the guard had used an open or closed fist. Ketter also told the policeman that he’d seen the Spurs guard and Spears apologize to each other, acting as if the incident was behind them.
Reports surfaced Thursday that Spears had approached Wembanyama at the restaurant Catch at the Aria Hotel to congratulate him on his success when a member of the athlete’s security allegedly slapped her, prompting her to file a police report. She tweeted about the incident saying that the security guard “back-handed me in the face without looking back, in front of a crowd” with enough force that it “nearly knock[ed] me down and cause[ed] my glasses off my face.” She wrote that she merely tapped Wembanyama on his shoulder.
Wembanyama disputed that Spears had only tapped him. A person, he told reporters, “grabbed me from behind — not on my shoulders — she grabbed me from behind.” He also said he was aware that his security had intervened: “I just know that the security pushed me away,” he said. “I don’t know with how much force, though. But security pushed her away. I didn’t stop to look. I kept walking and enjoyed a nice dinner. That was a fun night.” When he found out the person who had approached him was Spears, his reaction was, “No, you’re joking.”
Spears’ husband, Sam Asghari, also commented on the incident. “Self-defense can be unavoidable, but the defense of any woman, especially my wife, is not debatable,” he wrote on Instagram. “I consider my reaction subdued considering what occurred, and I hope the man in question learns a lesson and changes his disregard for women.”
It was rumored that Spears would meet with LVMPD on Thursday, but no one so far has commented on such an interview.
This article was updated on July 7 at 1:41 p.m. ET to include details from the police report. This article was updated again at 2:48 p.m. ET with video of the alleged incident.