By Tai Saint-Louis
Grammy Award winner Kanye West and his manager were arrested at Los Angeles International Airport this morning (Thursday), after an encounter with the paparazzi escalated.
According to several reports, the altercation took place close to the American Airlines terminal at LAX and started when an unidentified photographer began taking photos of the rapper.
Kanye allegedly approached the man and grabbed his camera, at which point a struggle ensued.
Wresting the camera away from its owner, Kanye proceeded to throw it to the ground, breaking it to pieces.
A videographer for gossip site TMZ.com was present at the time and started recording the incident.
He was promptly approached by Kanye’s manager.
The two went through a similar struggle, resulting in the bodyguard breaking the TMZ camera as well.
According to the TMZ employee, identified on the site only as Erik, following the incident, Kanye attempted to board his flight, at which point he and his manager where detained by police officers before going through airport security.
It was only during a subsequent interview with West, his security and the two photogs, that the Hip-Hop star realized TMZ obtained video footage of the altercation.
He reportedly became enraged, lunging at the cameraman and demanding the videotape. He had to be restrained by police.
At press time, Kanye and his bodyguard are both being held on charges of felony vandalism. The bodyguard was also charged with battery.
