Actor Jonathan Majors charged for assault

NEW YORK (AP)

Actor Jonathan Majors was arrested on Saturday in New York on charges of strangulation, assault and harassment, the authorities said. His attorney said there is evidence that he is "entirely innocent".

New York City police said that Majors, star of the recently released Creed III and Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, was involved in a domestic dispute with a 30-year-old woman. The police responded around 11 a.m. on Saturday to a 911 call inside an apartment in the Manhattan neighbourhood of Chelsea.

"The victim informed police she was assaulted," a spokesperson for the NYPD said in a statement. "Officers placed the 33-year-old male into custody without incident. The victim sustained minor injuries to her head and neck, and was removed to an area hospital in stable condition."

A representative for Majors denied any wrongdoing by the actor.

"He has done nothing wrong," the representative said in an email to the AP on Saturday. "We look forward to clearing his name and clearing this up."

Yesterday, an attorney for Majors, Priya Chaudhry, came out more forcefully, saying Majors "is probably the victim of an altercation with a woman he knows" and blamed the incident on the woman having "an emotional crisis".

Chaudhry said there was evidence clearing Majors, including "video footage from the vehicle where this episode took place, witness testimony from the driver and others who both saw and heard the episode, and most importantly, two written statements from the woman recanting these allegations".

An email seeking additional comment from the NYPD based on Chaudhry's assertions was not immediately returned yesterday.

Majors was arraigned yesterday on a complaint involving misdemeanour charges for assault and aggravated harassment, the Manhattan district attorney's office said. A judge ordered Majors released on his own recognisance on Saturday night with a limited order of protection. He was scheduled to appear in court on May 8.

In the meantime, the US Army suspended its TV ad campaign featuring Majors that was intended to target younger audiences. The Army Enterprise Marketing Office said in a statement yesterday that the US Army is "deeply concerned by the allegations surrounding his arrest".

"While Mr Majors is innocent until proven guilty, prudence dictates that we pull our ads until the investigation into these allegations is complete," the office said in a statement.

Majors is one of the fastest-rising stars in Hollywood. After breaking through in 2019 via The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Majors has starred in Da 5 Bloods, The Harder They Fall and last year's Devotion.

He also stars in the recent Sundance Film Festival entry Magazine Dreams, which Searchlight Pictures is to release in December.