Travis Scott arrested in Paris for hitting a security guard

Rapper Travis Scott, 33, was arrested in the early hours of Friday in Paris for hitting a security guard who was trying to separate him from his bodyguard after the two began fighting, according to the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office. The arrest took place in the lobby of the luxury hotel George V, in the eighth district of the French capital, where the artist is staying to enjoy the Olympic Games. A police source, to which the French newspaper Le Parisien has had access, revealed that it was precisely the hotel employees who called the police due to “acts of violence against a receptionist.” According to some media, Travis Scott was drunk when the incident occurred, so he could not be questioned at first.

The same source told French media that the Texan rapper was under the influence of alcohol not only at the time of the arrest, but throughout the time he was in police custody. The police arrived at 5 a.m. at the hotel, which is located a few meters from the Champs-Élysées in the French capital. In the videos of the arrest posted on social media, the artist is seen to be intoxicated as officers put him in the police car in handcuffs. The rapper has already been released, according to local media. The last time he was seen publicly was on Thursday night during the Olympic basketball semi-final between the United States and Serbian, which the former won by 95-91.

After the exciting match that took the U.S. team to the Olympic final, Scott went partying, as can still be seen in the stories of his Instagram account, which has 57 million followers. In the daily bulletin on the main events that occurred during the Olympic Games, the Paris Prosecutor’s Office has specified that the investigation into Scott is being carried out by the first district of the Judicial Police.

This is not the first time Travis Scott has been arrested. In June, the famous rapper — also widely known for being the ex-partner of Kylie Jenner, the youngest of the Kardashian sisters and with whom he has two children — was arrested in Miami for trespassing and disorderly intoxication. Authorities were alerted to an incident on a yacht, which appeared to be a fight. When they arrived, according to an affidavit obtained by People magazine, Scott was “yelling at the vessel occupants.”

“Officers made contact with [Scott] to conduct an investigation,” the affidavit reads. “The defendant was asked by officers to sit down, at which point [he] temporarily sat down and then began continuously standing back up, disregarding officers’ commands. Throughout the interaction, officers on scene could sense a strong smell of alcohol coming from the defendants’ breath.”

The owners of the yacht did not want to press charges, they only asked the rapper to get off the boat, and leave the dock. The police also asked Jacques Bermon Webster II — the artist’s real name — to leave. But according to the affidavit, during the walk from the vessel to the boardwalk, Scott walked backwards and yelled “obscenities” to the occupants of the yacht. In the end, he had to pay a fine of $150 for disorderly intoxication and $500 for the trespassing.

The rapper’s shows are known for being chaotic and disorderly. His most tragic show took place November 2021, when an avalanche killed 10 people and injured dozens more during his performance at the Astroworld festival in Houston. Security forces, who had a 56-page plan (and 20 ambulances at the gate, although more than 60 were needed) were unable to deal with what happened to the 50,000 attendees. Nearly 60 lawsuits were filed. Scott did not face criminal charges, but remains implicated in the civil cases because of poor organization of the event.

Just a week ago, the artist was seen on the streets of Madrid, where he gave two concerts at the WiZink Center as part of his Circus Maximus World Tour. For the moment, the tour is set to end on February 4, 2025, in Munich, Germany, but the rapper is expected to announce new dates. His album Utopia became the best-selling hip hop release of 2023, remaining firmly at number 1 on the Billboard Top 200 for four consecutive weeks, and receiving more than 50 billion streams worldwide.

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