Kanye West will not face charges following his involvement in snatching and tossing a California woman’s phone earlier this year.
According to TMZ, the Chicago rap star is no longer a suspect and will not face any charges related to the incident that occurred in January.
In Ventura County District Attorney’s Office documents obtained by TMZ on Wednesday (March 15), it was revealed the woman’s phone only suffered minor damage, which only affected the $30 case around the device. Documents show she also declined to press charges against Kanye.
When the incident occurred, the rapper and producer believed a female paparazzi followed him as he left his daughter North’s basketball game — though it was not confirmed that she was a hired camerawoman.
Kanye was caught on camera by another bystander approaching the woman’s car where he confronted her. “You didn’t have to run up on me like that,” said Ye as the woman filmed from inside her vehicle.
“I wasn’t running. I wasn’t running – but Kanye you’re a celebrity,” the woman responded. To which Kanye doubled down, “If I say stop, stop with your cameras!”
As the two continued to argue, a passenger in the car recorded Kanye reaching into the woman’s vehicle and snatching her phone before throwing it into the street. Law enforcement from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department reportedly arrived on the scene around 4:30 PM, where they were provided with the video clip as evidence.
In a separate run-in with paparazzi on the same day, Ye explained that he felt his “human rights” were being violated by professional photographers on a regular basis.
This is not the first time the rapper has spoken out about his disdain for cameras. As a result of a separate encounter with paps before these incidents, Kanye revealed that his negative experiences with paparazzi are why he started taking medication.
The Donda rapper, who has laid low after becoming a lightning rod for controversy last year, made the revelation during a January encounter with a cameraman.
Ye was leaving a tanning salon in Los Angeles with his new wife, Yeezy architect Bianca Censori, when a paparazzo began filming them. After spotting him, West walked over to the pap and told him to stop recording because he found it “antagonistic.”
The cameraman pleaded with Kanye by telling him he “just need[s] this one shot,” to which Ye replied: “No, you got the shot, but I’m saying…You don’t even know! You just jump up on people like this.”
Kanye then let his guard down somewhat and opened up to the cameraman about his long-running issues with paparazzi, admitting they’re what led to him being prescribed medication.
“Do you know the first time I ever took medication, why it was? Because I got mad at paparazzi,” he explained. “You know which paparazzi it was? The same one that shot Britney [Spears]. My dad did photography for newspapers. It has to be some kind of balance, some kind of conversation.”
[via]
