Justin Bieber off hook after car hits photographer
Incident was fault of photographer who jumped in front of car
Los Angeles police investigated an incident on Tuesday in which a car driven by teen idol Justin Bieber hit a paparazzo, but decided after enquiries that the lensman was at fault, a spokesman said.
Gossip website TMZ said Bieber, 19, was exiting the Laugh Factory on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood late on Monday when his white Ferrari struck a photographer, who was treated in hospital with unspecified injuries.
It posted video footage of the incident, in which Bieber is seen getting into the car with a male friend amid a crush of photographers, revving its engine, then driving off, apparently striking a paparazzo in the knee.
The LA Police Department (LAPD) initially said it was looking into the incident.
But LAPD spokesman Bruce Borihanh later said that a preliminary investigation had determined that the photographer “jumped in the street in front of the car”.
“It was not a hit and run... It was the pedestrian’s fault,” he said.
It is the latest alleged incident involving Bieber and his car, although in some cases he was not driving the vehicle.
Last month he made headlines after neighbours in his exclusive Calabasas neighborhood, northwest of Los Angeles, accused him of driving recklessly through the area.
Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials said on Monday that Bieber’s legal team had turned over a security video from his Calabasas home that shows that the pop star got into the car to park it inside the garage the day he was accused of driving at freeway speeds through the gated neighborhood.
They presented it as evidence that would exonerate Bieber, authorities said, but sheriff’s officials say the video shows the ferrari in the driveway with another driver and Bieber getting off a motorcycle, then getting into the sports car and parking it. The video reveals nothing about the car’s drive around the neighborhood, authorities said.
Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said the decision whether to file a reckless-driving charge against the pop star will be made by the district attorney’s office.
Canadian-born chart-topper Bieber has been on a break from his ongoing North American tour. He is expected to announce concert dates for Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region in the next few days.
With inputs from Los Angeles Times
