Alan Ritchson’s headlines-generating dispute with a neighbor has more to offer us.
This week, police body camera footage surfaced showing officers in the Brentwood area of Tennessee speaking with both Ritchson and the neighbor in question, previously identified as Ronnie Taylor. As seen in clips making the rounds on social media, thanks to a recent Law & Crime Network report, the Reacher and War Machine actor was interviewed by regional police officers about the incident, as was Taylor.
“Obviously, my life is a very high-stakes one, very public, so I think I need my attorney,” Ritchson is seen and heard telling police in the newly surfaced footage.
From there, the actor, who argued that he acted in self-defense in the much-discussed incident, spoke about footage from a different neighbor that police said had captured a portion of the altercation.
“Did he cut out the part where he shoved me off the bike?. … You would have seen him shoving me off my bike after I tried to leave peacefully,” Ritchson, who was bloodied on his elbow, said. “What have you seen? Because if you didn’t see that part, the rest doesn’t make sense.”
Ritchson then asks for a toxicology report on Taylor, arguing that he had been drinking prior to the incident. In Ritchson’s view, his neighbor is “a liar,” leading to him and his family feeling unsafe.
“I feel unsafe with him in the neighborhood right now,” he said. “I feel unsafe with my kids going out in the neighborhood. Why doesn’t he get arrested?”
Also included in the newly surfaced footage is an interaction between Taylor and responding officers. At one point, Taylor becomes emotional, seemingly fighting back tears as he relays his side of the story.
“I rolled my bike out this afternoon to clean it up and he comes through the neighborhood. … He goes up the hill, comes back down,” Taylor told cops. “I walk out and stop and say, ‘You guy, you gotta stop. You gotta stop, like, in these neighborhoods.’ So he hit his brakes hard because I was trying to stop him. He falls off his bike. He gets up and starts wailing on me.”
Taylor, brought to tears, went on to claim that he “didn’t try to hit him back,” seemingly revealing in the moment that he wasn’t immediately aware of who Ritchson was by describing him as, simply, a “huge dude.”
Complex has reached out to Brentwood Police Department reps for comment. This story may be updated.
As revealed in March, no charges were filed in connection with the incident. Previously, footage believed to stem from a body camera worn by Ritchson himself surfaced. In it, we see Taylor stepping into the actor’s path as he drives a motorcycle, eventually leading to the altercation we’re once again discussing right now.
