UPDATE: Comedian Katt Williams Charged With Hitting Woodland Target Employee
WOODLAND (CBS13) - Comedian Micah "Katt" Williams has been charged with battery after he was apparently caught on video hitting an employee of a Woodland Target store last month.
Entertainment gossip website TMZ.com first reported the Target incident regarding Williams, who also got into trouble with Sacramento law enforcement Nov. 25, the same day as the alleged Target incident.
"I had no idea who this guy was before he came into Target that day," the now former Target employee told CBS13's Derek Shore on Monday.
But Katt Williams will be a name Forrest Liebenberg will never forget.
"I was in no way the aggressor," he said. "I never went up to him."
Lately Williams has made a habit of getting into trouble and being arrested.
There was a bizarre attack on a heckler during a show in Oakland, then a police chase in Sacramento Nov. 25 that happened right after this confrontation and an arrest in Seattle on Sunday.
Forrest said his run-in with Williams started when Williams tried to buy his personal motorcycle helmet.
"He's just really aggressive, you know, making cynical comments, just based on the fact that I put thought into selling him my helmet," he said.
The 19-year-old security staffer thought it was over until he saw Williams a second time.
"He approached me, the argument got escalated, and that's when he hit me," he said.
A hit that he says caused his face to swell, but then Forrest suffered another hit just a few hours after the video was posted on YouTube. Forrest was fired Monday, he says with no explanation.
"I'm just as curious as you are Derek, but I'm definitely going to follow up with that," he told CBS13's Derek Shore. "Maybe I was a little uninformed about how seriously the situation was with Target, but obviously it is pretty serious, I was just terminated today. They weren't very clear, but it is obvious to me that it was based on this incident."
Forrest said he's unsure if Target believes he leaked the video to the media but said he wasn't responsible.
We asked Target corporate if Forrest's firing was related to the release of the video, and they replied with this statement:
"The team member involved in this incident is no longer a Target team member. Out of respect for the privacy of this individual, we cannot discuss the reasons for his departure. However, we can confirm that his departure was unrelated to the video footage that has appeared online. At Target, the safety and security of our guests and team members is a top priority. We take this incident very seriously and are continuing to partner with law enforcement."
They refused to comment further on the incident.
Woodland police have already followed up on the on-camera attack, recommending a criminal charge be filed against Williams. The Yolo County District Attorney's Office filed a charge of misdemeanor battery on Monday after reviewing the incident.
"He is a celebrity, he's not from our area, but that doesn't stop us as a police department to enforce the law," Lt. Anthony Cucchi said. "We didn't have an opportunity to speak to him at the scene. He fled before we got there."
But Forrest is now the one out of a job.
"People are saying he's worth millions of dollars, and he just cost me my job," Forrest said. "Of course that's going to be upsetting. It is a little upsetting that someone of his stature can act like they can just get away with this kind of stuff."
Williams' erratic behavior may be catching up to him, however. He's got a court hearing on Thursday in the Seattle incident to face allegations of obstruction, harassment and assault.
