Police were “prepared” to arrest Will Smith over Chris Rock slap, says Oscars producer
nme.comOscars producer Will Packer has claimed the Los Angeles Police Department were “prepared” to arrest Will Smith for hitting Chris Rock at last week’s ceremony, but said that Rock prevented them from doing so.Before winning the Best Actor award for his role in King Richard, Smith took to the stage to slap Rock over a joke the latter made about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head.
In 2018, Pinkett Smith revealed she has alopecia.Upon returning to his seat, Smith shouted to a stunned Rock: “Keep my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth!”It was reported shortly after the incident took place that Rock would not be pressing charges against Smith.During an appearance on ABC’s Good Morning America, Oscars producer Packer spoke out for the first time about the altercation, revealing that the LAPD had visited his office to speak to Rock on the night.“They were saying, you know, this is battery was the word they used in that moment,” Packer told GMA. “They said, ‘We will go get him.
We are prepared. We’re prepared to get him right now. You can press charges. We can arrest him’.”He went on to say that the police were “laying out the options”, adding: “And as they were talking, Chris was being very dismissive of those options.
He was like, ‘No, no, I’m fine’. He was like, ‘No, no, no’.”Packer continued: “And even to the point where I said, ‘Rock, let them finish’.
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