The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office will not be filing felony charges against rapper Kanye West, relating to his scrap with a paparazzo outside of LAX on July 19th. Still, the case went to the city attorney for a potential misdemeanor charge.
As West was walking towards the exit of the airport toward a waiting Mercedes, the paparazzi began hounding him about why he wouldn’t speak to them. West, sporting his best famous-rap-artist male-gaze, initially ignored the baiting, but eventually spoke, claiming that the photographers were trying to get him in trouble.
Below is a clip of the incident:
LA prosecutors have deemed that the photographer involved in the incident did not recieve any serious injuries, his camera wasn’t stolen and didn’t appear to be broken, West didn’t use a weapon, and since the rapper has no felony record, the charge was reduced to a misdemeanor.
West has had similar encounters with paparazzi at Los Angeles International Airport in the past, and just a week before asked to have the cameras taken out of his face. It’s not uncommon for a paparazzo to post up outside of a terminal, waiting for celebrities to walk by, in hopes of getting a picture, soundbite or even a punch in the face, which can foster a lucrative lawsuit. The paparazzo shown in the above video seems to have enrolled in some Tinseltown acting classes, aptly portraying a sort of epic death-rattle, after his savage beating at the hands of Kanye.
In related news, West and partner Kim Kardashian have been said to have turned down offers of up to $3 million for exclusive pictures of baby North West, the couple’s first born.