Instead of celebrating Thanksgiving with turkey and gratitude, Ray J spent the holiday behind bars. According to TMZ, the singer and actor was arrested after an altercation with his ex-wife, Princess Love, involving their children. The incident, during which Ray J allegedly pulled a gun on the Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood alum, was caught on video via livestream.
Here’s more on the incident, where Ray J is now, and what the former couple has said about the altercation.
Norwood appeared to pull a gun on Love and threatened to ‘kill’ a man
Early Thursday morning, Ray J, whose birth name is Willie Norwood, went on live from his home to share that he was having “the worst Thanksgiving in the f***ing world.” He claimed that someone was trying to take his kids away from him, and he was being threatened.
Afterwards, the singer and actor seemed to take a handgun from a nearby table and load the pistol before leaving the frame.
“If these n***as step foot close to this door, I’m going to blow this f*cking sh*t away, bro,” he said before leaving.
Norwood is then heard accusing someone of “trespassing” and ordering them to leave. Love walks in and informs him that she’s talking to their children. She then retrieves who appears to be their 7-year-old daughter, Melody, and claimed Norwood “pointed a gun at us.” The singer and actor accused the TV personality and her cousin of being drunk.
Love then called Norwood a “woman abuser.”
Soon thereafter, a woman and a man enter the home, the latter getting into a physical altercation with Norwood.
“I’ll shoot the f*ck out of you,” the singer and actor is heard yelling at the man.
At this point, the camera falls down but continues recording. Norwood is heard repeatedly threatening to “kill” the man.
“Get out of my house before I shoot you right now. I got a gun on me,” he said.
The audio catches a police siren approaching the residence as well as what sounds like a child crying. Later, police appear to arrive on the scene, and Love is heard explaining what happened to an officer.
“My son told me there was a gun on the table,” it sounds like she said.
Norwood was arrested and held at a Los Angeles-area jail
Authorities told TMZ that they got a call about a domestic dispute at a residence in Porter Ranch, a Los Angeles suburb, around 4 a.m. Officers then cleared the residence and took the singer and actor into custody.
Norwood was arrested and held at a Los Angeles-area jail, where he was booked on a charge of making a criminal threat. Bail was set at $50,000.
According to Complex, he has since been released.
Love urges Norwood to ‘take accountability’ and go to ‘rehab’ in response video
Love shared a video addressing the incident, during which she urged her ex-husband to “take accountability” for his actions.
“I love my kids, and I would never do anything to put them in danger, including leaving them with a man who’s waving a gun around,” Love said in a recent video shared Thursday afternoon. “I would never do anything to put my kids’ lives in danger. I’m the best mothe,r and I do it alone. I take my kids to school alone. I go to parent-teacher conferences alone. I put them to be bed alone while you’re out here running around the world terrorizing women and abusing women. What I’m not about to do is let you deflect and not take accountability for your actions, for pulling a gun out on me and my cousin’s husband because I was trying to take my kids and leave your house.”
The TV personality explained that she and Norwood agreed that she would come over to his home to cook for Thanksgiving so he could spend time with their children with her present— a stipulation made after an incident involving the kids finding Norwood in bed naked with a woman.
“And when I tried to ask you about it, you told me to fuck myself and that I don’t run sh*t over there,” she explained. “So take accountability, Ray. Do better. Check yourself into rehab because you’re more than drunk. You’re not about to sit here and try and make me look crazy when I am the best mother. Since the day my kids were born, I have been the best mother and I will take that because I am. Everything I do, I do for my kids, including being around you when I don’t want to or have to. It’s crazy.”
Love concluded the video by sharing she is going to “continue to pray” for her ex and underscored that no one deserved what they allegedly went through on Thanksgiving.
“I did nothing to you to deserve that. My cousin’s husband didn’t do anything to deserve that. Never again,” she said.
Norwood claimed he didn’t get physical until ‘the n***a started trying to get in the bed and snatch my kid’
Norwood shared his own video addressing the incident, in which he claimed that Love went out of her way to involve the children “into this grown-up argument.” He also doubled down on his claim that his ex-wife and another individual were drunk during the altercation.
“You got a dude coming in my bedroom where my kids are asleep, and they’re trying to get in my bed and take my kids because all of y’all are drunk,” he said. “Y’all can’t drive with these kids drunk. I’m not letting that happen. This dude is coming in my room, getting in my bed to take my kid. I’m going to defend my kids and I’mma defend my space.”
Norwood then revealed that he was surprised that he was arrested, assuming authorities would side with him.
“When they called the police, no problem,” he said. “I’m sure the police gon’ come and understand what I’m going through. Then I go to jail? I’m in my bedroom, they’re in there snatching my kids out of the bed while they’re asleep and they’re waking up yelling and screaming and crying. A dude is getting my kid out of the bed, bro. I’m going for mine, for my kids. I’mma double down on that. Y’all can’t do that. But you know what, it is what it is. I love my kids. I’m not playing about my kids, and that’s it. That’s it.”
The singer and actor stressed that he “showed self-control” and that he didn’t physically assault anyone involved in the incident until “the n***a started trying to get in the bed and snatch my kid.”
“That’s a whole ‘nother thing, man. I’m in my house. I hate that this shit happened,” he said.