Members of Johnny Manziel's entourage were involved in a massive brawl early Saturday morning in downtown Cleveland, according to a police report obtained by Scene.
Johnny Manziel and his entourage involved in Cleveland brawl, per report
A police report obtained by Scene suggests Manziel’s crew assaulted a fan who approached the quarterback for a hug.
Police responded to a report of a “riot” involving 20 men and two security guards in a high-priced downtown apartment complex. The police report does not specify whether Manziel himself was involved.
The incident reportedly kicked off when 33-year-old Chris Gonos spotted Manziel and his crew waiting for an elevator and pointed the star rookie out to his girlfriend. According to the police report, Gonos "stated to the unidentified male, 'I'm the biggest Browns fan ever, I love you, I want to give you a hug.'"
Gonos told police that when he took a step toward Manziel, he was punched several times in the face, then assaulted by several members of Manziel’s crew. A portion of the police report published by Scene names “Kirk” as the primary offender. Gonos, who told Scene no one was arrested after the incident, said that Manziel did not punch him but that the quarterback did throw a punch at his brother.
”I got a bruised hip and a bruised elbow, and somebody hit me in the back of the head, too. My brother saw what was going on and he ran he tackled Johhny Manziel -- I guess he got the sack and the fumble. He tackled him, yeah, I’m talking about he speared him all the way to the back wall. I was cornered; I was by myself and Johnny Manziel and like three or four of his buddies were all coming at me. (My brother) just came to help me out, and I guess Johnny sucker punched him while the security guard was holding him. It should be all on video.
“All these cops run into the lobby, and they’re like, ‘Who was fighting, who was fighting?’ and I just raised my hand, and was like, listen, watch the camera, and stuff like that. I may be guilty of being a fan, but that’s about it. I even showed them the guy that sucker punched me and the cops walked right up to him, talking to him for a while, and they let us all go. They just told me I had to leave the hotel, and me and my ride, we left. Manziel never punched me, but he got a sucker punch on my brother.”
The police report claims Gonos was left with “a swollen lip, right eye swollen, red face” and a security guard who stepped in to help was also injured.
The police report claims that there is video footage of the incident, according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler.
The Browns released the following statement to Scene:
“We are aware of the incident and are in the process of gathering additional information in order to gain a complete understanding of what occurred. Nonetheless, the time of the incident is concerning to us. We continually stress to all of our players the importance of sound decision making in an effort to avoid putting themselves in these types of situations. We have addressed this appropriately with the player and will have no further comment at this time.”
The apartment complex, The 9, told Scene “We have no comment on any of that.”
Update: Manziel’s agent released a statement and said Manziel was accosted in the elevator. Here is the complete statement from Erik Butkhardt, via Adam Schefter:
“Johnny and his roommate had been out to dinner earlier in the evening with Johnny’s mother, who is staying with him this week. There was no entourage. Johnny and his roommate were trying to get on the apartment elevator at his home when they were accosted by a very aggressive man and his associates. It was an unfortunate situation and he immediately let Ray Farmer and the team know what happened.”
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