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Justin Bieber Punched Man, Hurled Racial Slurs, New Lawsuit Claims
The alleged incident occurred two years ago. The Beibs' manager Scooter Braun took to Twitter on Thursday to call the claims against his client “false” and “disgusting.”
Justin Bieber is being sued by a man who says the 24-year-old singer punched him in the face and hurled racial epithets at him.
Rodney Cannon filed the suit on Thursday, Billboard reports, detailing the June 8, 2016 incident that he says took place after a NBA playoff game that night.
Cannon said he was introduced to Bieber at the Westin Hotel in Cleveland, Ohio. After Bieber took Cannon’s sunglasses without permission and put them on, Cannon then tried to take a picture of him, at which point Bieber’s demeanor “dramatically changed,” Cannon claims.
According to his suit, the “Sorry” singer became “irate” and demanded that Cannon delete the photo, “aggressively threatening” to harm him if he didn’t.
Cannon claimed that Bieber then got physical with him, grabbing his shirt as he was walking away and punching his face, head, and body, Billboard reported. Cannon said he then subdued Bieber on the ground when one of Bieber’s security guards struck him in the head, knocking him out.
Cannon’s suit also claims that Bieber used racial epithets during the altercation, which he says took place in front of a number of people, according to court documents obtained by The Blast.
Though the altercation took place in June 2016, Cannon did not file a police report until February of the following year, according to the Seattle Times, prompting a police investigation. Cannon says that he suffered mental and emotional injuries due to the incident.
Bieber has yet to respond to the allegations against him, but his manager Scooter Braun took to Twitter on Thursday to call the claims against his client “false” and “disgusting.”
“Justin Bieber has done a lot of stupid things in his past but what he has also done is apologize and own those mistakes. This most recent claim against him is completely false and a fabrication from a man who tried to push for money for the last several years,” he wrote in a series of tweets.
“It is disgusting to me to see this man lie and try to bring race into a situation to scare us into a payment again. He never said these things before because they never happened. This is a smear tactic to get money and it’s gross.”
TMZ shared a video of the altercation between Bieber and Cannon in 2016.
[Photo: Justin Bieber via Getty Images]
