Audio By Carbonatix
The LAPD was “prepared” to arrest Will Smith Sunday night during the Academy Awards after the actor slapped comedian Chris Rock on stage, Oscar-producer Will Packer claims.
“They were saying, ‘This is battery,’ was the word they used in that moment,” Packer claimed while describing what officers suggested to Rock following the smack in regards to pressing charges against the Oscar winner.
“[The officers] said ‘we will go get him, we are prepared to get him right now,’” he recalled to “Good Morning America.”
“’You can press charges and we can arrest him,'” they allegedly added.
Packer insists, however, that Rock “dismissed” the idea of pressing charges against the “Fresh Prince” star.
The Academy initially claimed that they asked Smith to leave following the incident involving the “Hitch” actor smacking the “Never Scared” comic over a joke about wife Jada Pinkett Smith’s hair, as the “Red Table Talk” host suffers from hair loss condition, alopecia.

WireImage
“Things unfolded in a way we could not have anticipated,” The Academy told the Associated Press Wednesday. “While we would like to clarify that Mr. Smith was asked to leave the ceremony and refused, we also recognize we could have handled the situation differently.”
A new report, however, claims the Academy never officially asked Smith to exit the Dolby Theater that night, and that Packer was the one who confirmed that “he could stay.”
Packer previously called the incident “a very painful moment for me,” when confronted by a critic on Twitter who took issue with the producer jokingly tweeting, “Welp…I said it wouldn’t be boring #Oscars.”
“Black people have a defiant spirit of laughter when it comes to dealing with pain because there has been so much of it. I don’t feel the need to elucidate that for you,” Packer commented. “But I also don’t mind being transparent and say that this was a very painful moment for me. On many levels.”
Will Packer’s full interview will be aired during “Good Morning America” Friday morning on ABC
Latest Stories
-
Prosecution witness alleges Chairman Wontumi ordered mining in protected Tano Nimiri Forest Reserve
3 minutes -
31 people dead after bus crashes in Ethiopia
4 minutes -
G7 leaders meet in France with Iran and Ukraine high on agenda
10 minutes -
South Africa marks 50 years since Soweto uprising amid modern youth crisis
15 minutes -
Engineer calls for greater citizen responsibility in tackling Ghana’s flood crisis
19 minutes -
GRA targets informal sector with modified tax scheme
21 minutes -
Embed climate education in national climate policies—AGN Chair
28 minutes -
Eight dead after US Air Force B-52 bomber crashes in California
33 minutes -
Ghana records weakest Q1 budget execution since 2017 as consolidation bites
44 minutes -
NPP accuses government of selective justice, warns against interference in Sedina Tamakloe’s sentence
46 minutes -
Ashaiman Police arrest two suspects over separate armed robbery attacks
55 minutes -
Port charges hindering access to donated medicines, cancer charity warns
1 hour -
See the areas that will be affected by ECG’s planned maintenance on Tuesday
1 hour -
Mahama’s lean government claim misleading when full appointments are considered – Jinapor
1 hour -
India temporarily bans Telegram over exam paper leak concerns
1 hour