Chris Brown has been arrested for assault with a deadly weapon, the Los Angeles police department confirms to USA TODAY.
Brown was "arrested at some point this afternoon," says LAPD detective Meghan Aguilar. Although an exact time was not yet available, she said Brown was arrested before 5 p.m. The singer will be booked into a LAPD jail facility before being transferred to county jail.
After waiting hours outside Brown's house on Tuesday, Los Angeles police obtained a search warrant and went inside to investigate a woman's claim that the trouble-plagued singer threatened her with a gun, according to the Los Angeles Times and the local CBS TV affiliate, among other media reports.
The Los Angeles police did not say earlier Tuesday what exactly is going on, except that police were at Brown's sprawling mansion in Tarzana in the San Fernando Valley, and more were on the way.
But the Times reported that shortly before 1 p.m. PT, detectives from the LAPD Robbery-Homicide division entered Brown's house with the warrant after his attorney, Mark Geragos, arrived at the scene. Geragos did not return calls for comment.
About an hour later, Brown came out of his home peacefully, according to the Associated Press. Various media organizations live-streaming the scene showed a man in a red baseball cap sitting on outside the house on the front walkway and smiling with police, as Geragos paced nearby.
The AP quoted Lt. Chris Ramirez telling reporters at the scene that several people were escorted from the residence after a search warrant was served. No arrests had been made and everyone has been cooperative, he said.
The Times and TV news affiliates earlier quoted LAPD public information Officer Liliana Preciado as saying police were called to Brown's residence about 3 a.m. by a woman who claimed Brown violently threatened her with a gun.
When police initially tried to enter the home to search for a weapon, they were told to get a search warrant, the Times reported. Officer Lyle Knight told the Associated Press at the scene that police were waiting for a judge to approve a search warrant.
Then, after the search warrant was signed, Deputy Chief Bob Green said officers were waiting for Brown’s attorney to arrive at the house, according to the Times. The deputy chief predicted the situation could be "long and protracted."
A representative of Brown has not returned calls for comment about any of this.
But about 7 a.m. local time, Brown posted three profanity-filled videos of himself on his Instagram account, railing against the police and the media coverage of the activity at his house. He denounced media reports that he was "barricaded" inside his house, complained about the helicopters flying overhead, and called the police "idiots" and "the worst gang in the world."
He said he was "innocent" although he didn't further specify. "What I do care about is you are defacing my name and my character and integrity," he says in one of the videos.
He also took time to urge fans to buy his latest, Grass Ain't Greener.
Brown's friend Ray J posted his own video on his Instagram page, decrying the "war zone" outside Brown's house.
"I'm real upset about today, I'm not happy with how things are handled and how people can take a false story and blow it up into something way more than it should be," he said to the camera in the video. "You look outside and it's like a war zone for no reason for what some stranger said about something that don't got nothing to do with nothing. To react like that, so fast without really knowing the facts, it's ain't cool, it's just not right, it shouldn't be like this."
Brown has been in and out of legal and police trouble for years, including being charged with felony assault in connection with a brutal attack on his then-girlfriend Rihanna in 2009. Only last year, that case was officially closed after a judge ruled he had completed community service obligations as part of his sentence in the case.
Afterwards, Brown tweeted, "IM OFF PROBATION!!!!!!!! Thank the Lord!!!!!!"
As a convicted felon (Brown pleaded guilty), under California's strict gun laws, Brown would lose the right to possess a firearm.
More recently, former rap music mogul Marion "Suge" Knight, who's in jail awaiting trial on murder charges, sued Brown and the owners of a popular nightclub in June because he was shot seven times at a 2014 party hosted by Brown.
Brown also was sued in June by his ex-manager, Mike G (real name: Michael Guirguis), who alleges the singer "brutally" attacked him in a "drug-fueled" rage in May, and his injuries sent him to the hospital. No police report was filed.
Although Brown described himself on his Instagram videos as one of the "greatest entertainers out there," his career has slowed somewhat in recent years. His most recent record to chart in the Hot 100, according to Billboard, was Back to Sleep, which peaked at 20 back in March. Last fall’s Royalty debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 album chart; it was his best first-week sales since 2011’s F.A.M.E.
Besides his new song last week, Brown has featured on other songs with Kanye West, DJ Khaled and 50 Cent this year. So while he hasn’t had a top-10 hit since 2014 (Loyal), he’s still managed to have a steady career, and hasn't been alienated by other big-name artists.
In July, his Las Vegas residency at Drai's nightclub was put on hold after he posted an Instagram tirade against alleged "racist" employees at the club and refused to apologize.
