Chris Brown 'innocent' of involvement in VIP Room fight that seriously injured partygoer's eye, sources say

 

t may seem trouble follows hip-hop star Chris Brown — but sources say he was an innocent bystander at a Meatpacking District club early Thursday when a glass bottle shattered and severely injured a man’s eye.
An argument in the VIP Room on W. 13th St. sometime after 2 a.m. led to a dustup between two men, multiple sources told the Daily News. A glass bottle broke during the fracas, and a shard from it sliced the eye of a bystander who was not believed to have been involved in the dispute.see more below...


The man, a 29-year-old, told cops that Brown and his entourage started arguing with another group and that bottles were thrown during the clash, police sources said.
Brown, 25, who got out of a Los Angeles jail in June and is on probation, was hosting a Fashion Week party at the hotspot.
The injured man told cops that a shard of glass from a broken bottle pierced his left eye, and that a doctor told him he may lose vision in that eye, the police sources said. The man was being treated at New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai.
 



Police were reviewing video footage to sort out the events and determine whether Brown was involved, the cop sources said.
But at least three sources disputed that account, saying that Brown was in another area of the club during the argument and wasn’t involved in any way.
“There was an incident just right of the deejay booth involving a waitress, a host and a male and female couple,” a source close to the investigation told The News.
“Chris Brown is innocent for once.”
That source and a second one said the club has released video to the police, and that it showed that Brown and his crew were on the other side of the room from the argument that caused all of the trouble.
“The fight happened directly across the room from Chris and his crew,” the second source told The News. “It had absolutely nothing to do with him nor was he involved.”
“You couldn’t even see him on the video,” the first source added.
The first source provided the following account of what happened: the fight started when a woman, who was dancing while holding a plastic drink in her hand, accidentally turned and bumped into a waitress, spilling the drink’s contents on her. An argument ensued. A host came over when he noticed the soaked waitress.

 
A man who was with the drink-spiller then got up and confronted the host. The two men exchanged words. The man had a bottle in his hand, and was gesticulating with his hands as he argued. At one point the man’s bottle made contact with the host’s shoulder — it was not clear if the man intentionally struck the host with it or if the contact was accidental. The bottle fell from the level on which the men were standing and landed on a lower level, causing it to shatter. The man who suffered the eye injury was on the lower level and likely believed the bottle had been thrown since it rained down from above.
“On the other side of the room, there’s Chris Brown and his friends drinking and having a good time, completely unaware of the incident,” the first source said. “He was completely oblivious.”
A third source, who is close to Brown, said: “Chris’ legal team has already done a preliminary investigation and is confident he had absolutely nothing to do with it. Chris was not a target [of police as they investigate], nor will he be.”
The source said Brown is focused on his appearance Thursday night on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”
But Brown’s mere presence at a club when a violent incident unfolded is just the latest example of how the “Forever” singer has been plagued by negative publicity since he was convicted of assaulting singer Rihanna on the eve of the 2009 Grammy Awards. The couple reunited in 2012, but their reunion was followed by multiple splits.
Pictures of Rihanna’s facial injuries damaged Brown’s reputation with the public, and he has been associated with a host of negative headlines since his conviction in that case.
He got into hot water in 2012 for a brawl with the rapper Drake over RiRi’s affection at a SoHo nightclub. The fight caused injuries to others and damage to the establishment.
Brown’s probation for the 2009 Rihanna beating was revoked in October after his arrest on an assault charge for allegedly attacking a man outside of the W Hotel in Washington, D.C. He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault on Sept. 2 and was sentenced to time served.
He was locked up on March 14 in Los Angeles for the violation of his parole. He was released in June — but the hits just keep on coming.
Brown threw a party in Hollywood in August where gunshots were fired; Death Row Records founder Suge Knight was hit multiple times but survived. Sources have told The News that investigators believe Knight was the shooter’s intended target.
Prior to the bottle incident at VIP Room, Paris and Nicky Hilton were at the club for a party in honor of Nicky’s new book, “365 Style.” They left at 11 p.m. Wednesday, according to the source familiar with the investigation. The club is scheduled Thursday night to host another event associated with Fashion Week.