Justin Bieber will not be charged for last month’s hit-and-run incident, when his Ferrari allegedly hit a paparazzo outside the Laugh Factory comedy club.
The incident took place on June 17, when Bieber and his friend Lil Twist were leaving the club. There were several people standing around his Ferrari, but he didn’t motion to any of them to get out of the way. As he backed out, Bieber ended up hitting a photographer, Damon Walter, in the crowd. He didn’t stop and left the scene.
There were reports that Walter was treated for minor injuries and that Bieber was interviewed by the LAPD and denied any wrongdoing.
“Sometimes u just wanna go to a comedy club and have a laugh. no trouble. just want to laugh,” Bieber tweeted after the incident.
While it was reported at the time that police did not want to pursue the case, prosecutors had an opportunity to charge Bieber. But on Wednesday, they decided not to file criminal charges, reports The Los Angeles Times.
Officers decided that Walter was “at fault in the collision due to being in the roadway and blocking Bieber's vehicle,” according to the filing rejection. The document noted that Bieber’s defense that he didn’t know he hit anyone was credible, since “There were over a dozen paparazzi surrounding his car and on the sidewalk, and it was noisy with camera flashes and bright lights surrounding him.”
The document continued, “Given the scene and the stress of the situation, it is likely that Bieber did not know he had hit Walter.”
image: NBC