Mike Tyson Speaks Out on Airport Scuffle
Posted by Richard Head
MIKE Tyson says he was merely defending his wife and 10-month-old child after an altercation with an overaggressive photographer at Los Angeles’ LAX airport on Wednesday.
Tyson reportedly lashed out at paparazzo Tony Echevarria, 50, as he passed through the city’s airport with his family.
Police confirmed the former heavyweight boxing champion had been held on suspicion of battery.
“Mike acted in self-defense as a father protecting his child,” said Tyson’s spokeswoman Tammy Brook.
However, Echevarria said in video interview posted on TMZ that he “wasn’t aggressive, I was shooting from a distance, and I was respectful.” He indicated that his videotape should back up his story.
LAX police Sgt. Jim Holcomb says Tyson allegedly hit the photographer once in the face with one hand, causing a laceration on the forehead.
Echevarria says he received five stitches and that Tyson, 43, hit him at least four times. “When you’re getting hit by Mike Tyson, it’s the worst thing in the world you can imagine,” he said.
The incident comes just months after Tyson’s four-year-old daughter Exodus died after accidentally strangling herself with a loose cord on a treadmill.
It’s not the first time that the boxer, 43, has been in trouble with the law.
In 1999, he was jailed for assaulting two people after a traffic accident and seven years previous to that, was convicted of raping a beauty queen and served three years in prison.
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