Kanye West under investigation for alleged battery after altercation with driver

American rapper Kanye West is currently under investigation for alleged battery after a video surfaced showing the rapper involved in a confrontation with a driver, U.S. police say.

The Ventura County Sheriff's Office told the American entertainment outlet E! News that they had received a call about an alleged battery that had taken place on January 27 at the Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks, a city northwest of Los Angeles. Upon arrival, police were provided with video evidence showing West involved in an altercation with a driver.

On the same day as the incident, TMZ published a reported video of the altercation. The 25 second video shows West standing in the middle of the road and peering into a woman’s driver side window. The woman appears to have been filming West who can be heard saying, “Stop with your cameras.” The woman replies, “But you’re a celebrity”, and the rapper then appears to grab her phone and throw it on the ground.

West had left the scene by the time police arrived, where a crime report was taken, which will lead to further investigation of West by detectives, according to a spokesperson for the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office.

Neither West nor a representative or lawyer for him has commented on the event. The identity of the woman has also not been released to the public at this time.

West, who goes by Ye, has been embroiled in controversy over the past several months for his anti-semitic comments in interviews and on social media. This string of controversies eventually led the design company Adidas to cut ties with the rapper and end production of the rapper's popular Yeezy brand products in 2022.