Britney Spears has been in the news regularly over the past several years for reasons ranging from her taking back control of her life post-conservatorship to her social media posts baring all to even her return to music with Elton John. Most recently, the pop icon has been in the headlines due to an alleged incident in Las Vegas involving the security team for young NBA star Victor Wembanyama. Spears claimed that she was assaulted when she tried to approach the San Antonio Spurs player, resulting in a police report being filed. Now, however, charges are not set to be filed.
The alleged incident took place on July 5, with initial reports stating that Britney Spears was hit with a backhand slap by a member of Victor Wembanyama's security team after she touched him to get his attention. There was originally said to be enough force that she was knocked to the ground and her glasses fell off her face, leading to a police report with the Las Vegas Metropolitan P.D. for the charge of battery. In a development on July 7, the police department announced that no charges will be filed, according to KTNV Las Vegas.
The Las Vegas news outlet goes on to state that, according to an incident report, surveillance footage of the encounter between Britney Spears and Wembanyama's security team showed that she was actually hit in the face with her own hand, after a security guard pushed her arm off of the back of the NBA player. The report also says that the security guard and the singer apologized to each other "for the misunderstanding" after he approached her to say that he was sorry. The decision to not file charges stems from the determination that the guard did not "willfully or unlawfully use any force or violence" on Spears.
At the time of writing, Britney Spears has not publicly reacted to the news that no charges will be filed, although both she and husband Sam Asghari addressed the situation in the wake of the incident. In a statement the day after the encounter that opened with "Traumatic experiences are not new to me," Spears shared her account of what happened, and said that the story is "super embarrassing to share" but she felt it was important to "set an example and treat all people with respect."
Asghari posted a statement almost the same time as his wife on July 6, stating that he's "opposed to violence in any form, especially without the justification in the defense of yourself or someone else who is unable to defend themselves." He said that he considered his reaction "subdued." He then doubled down in his defense of Britney Spears the next day by saying that she never treated anybody with disrespect in "her 25 years of true superstardom."
Victor Wembanyama has had less to say publicly about the situation, although he did tell The Associated Press after the news first broke that he didn't see what happened but knew that "the security pushed her away." The basketball player said that he didn't even know that the person involved had been Britney Spears until the Spurs security told him. It remains to be seen if the police deciding not to file charges will be the end of the story, and whether any of the people involved will have more to say about the decision.
