Nicki Minaj sued by former tour employee after she allegedly attacked him backstage
Warning: This article includes mention of assault and battery.
Nicki Minaj has been sued by her former tour employee who claimed that she had physically assaulted him backstage during one of her concert shows held back in April.
According to documents obtained by Billboard, Brandon Garrett claimed that he suffered multiple hits from the rapper while working as a day-to-day manager for her Pink Friday 2 tour in Detroit.
The incident began when Minaj called Garrett to come into her dressing room, where she and her former manager Deb Antney allegedly scolded him for sending another tour employee identified as Luke Montgomery to pick up prescriptions for Minaj in his place.
He reasoned that he had Montgomery get the items as he was occupied at the venue at the time. However, Minaj was said to have become "visibly upset" and "angrily screamed" at him.
The singer allegedly told Garrett, "Are you f*****g crazy having him pick up my prescription? You have lost your f*****g mind and if my husband was here, he would knock out your f*****g teeth. You’re a dead man walking. You just f****d up your whole life and you will never be anyone, I’ll make sure of it."
She then demanded Montgomery to tell her what day he picked up the prescriptions and "what exact prescriptions they were." When he couldn't answer, she "screamed" at him "to look through his phone until he finds it."
The lawsuit detailed that when neither Montgomery nor Garrett could find the information, Minaj asked to see Garrett's cellphone, but once he got close to her, that was when she "open-handedly struck" him on the right side of his face.
This caused his head to "swing backwards as his hat flew off his head." She then hit him on his right wrist, knocking the documents in his hands onto the floor before he was asked to get out of the room.
Garrett subsequently "ran to the nearest restroom and locked himself inside for hours." He alleged that the attack left his wrist throbbing and his face becoming sore, but he stayed in the restroom because he "was terrified and feared for his safety."
The following morning, he was left stranded after he was informed by a busmate that Antney said that he "would not be riding the bus from Detroit to Chicago."
He was forced to travel back to Chicago on his own via plane. After which he had requested the Chicago Police Department to escort him back to his hotel because he "feared for his safety and did not know if his belongings had been removed or tampered with."
Garrett remained in his room "for the next couple days…because he was fearful and traumatized" over the incident. Once he returned to Detroit, that was when he formally filed a police report.
He is taking legal action against Minaj for intentional infliction of emotional distress, assault, and battery. The artist has yet to respond to the complaint.
