Brian Hickerson was placed in handcuffs outside a South Carolina bar Saturday night, less than a month after the death of his on-and-off girlfriend Hayden Panettiere.
Greenville police responded to Wild Wing Cafe on Sept. 12 following a report of an assault and encountered Hickerson, his brother Zach and other people involved in an altercation outside, according to TMZ.
Both brothers were handcuffed, but their nights ended differently. Brian was released without being arrested, while Zach was taken into custody for disorderly conduct after police said he was highly intoxicated and began shouting profanities.
While sitting in handcuffs, Brian also shouted about Panettiere’s Aug. 16 death and accused the Greenville Police Department of leaking information connected to the case. His allegation has not been substantiated, and Panettiere’s official cause of death remains under investigation.
Brian Was Handcuffed but Not Arrested
The trouble began Saturday night inside Wild Wing Cafe in Greenville. Sources cited by TMZ said Brian and Zach had been drinking for several hours before Brian approached other patrons at the bar and picked up a stool, which he allegedly threw backward.
Video obtained by the outlet shows an argument escalating inside the restaurant. At one point, another person lifts Brian into the air before he is carried toward the exit while a bartender can be heard trying to stop the confrontation.
Greenville police told TMZ that officers had been dispatched for a reported assault and arrived to find Brian, Zach and other people involved in an altercation outside. Officers placed both brothers in handcuffs while sorting out what had happened.
Brian was ultimately released at the scene and was not arrested or charged in connection with the incident. Police said Zach was highly intoxicated and began yelling profanities after officers arrived, leading to his arrest for disorderly conduct.
His Shout About Panettiere’s Death Has Not Been Substantiated
While detained, Brian yelled, “GPD leaked it when my girlfriend died,” according to the video described by TMZ. Brian and Zach were both at the residence when emergency responders arrived. A police report obtained by AP said paramedics attempted to revive Panettiere before she was pronounced dead at age 36.
An autopsy found no signs of trauma, and police said there were no initial signs of foul play. Authorities have not publicly announced an official cause of death, and preliminary emergency-radio references to cardiac arrest and a possible overdose are not a medical determination of how she died.
Zach later said Brian administered Narcan and attempted to help revive Panettiere. Police also documented medication at the residence. Neither detail establishes a cause of death on its own.
The investigation remains active. PEOPLE reported, citing a source, that Brian recently met with Drug Enforcement Administration officials as investigators pursued leads involving a possible drug supplier. He has not been publicly identified as a suspect.
His attorney, Sloan Ellis, has previously urged the public not to draw conclusions while authorities continue their work and pointed to the lack of evidence of foul play. Nothing released by Greenville police connects Saturday’s bar incident to the investigation into Panettiere’s death.
Hickerson Had Spoken About Panettiere Months Before Her Death
Brian discussed his complicated relationship with Panettiere publicly only a few months before she died. During a May interview with TMZ’s Charlie Neff, he called her the “sweetest thing in the world” and described her as a “Sunday girl,” meaning someone he wanted to spend ordinary time with-
He also acknowledged that the two “probably wouldn’t be good together” and said he believed stepping away could allow her to flourish professionally. At the same time, he said he still loved her and had once imagined marrying her.
Their public relationship status remained difficult to define. Brian described them at different points as friends or exes, while later reporting said they had privately resumed a romantic relationship before Panettiere’s death.
Panettiere herself had publicly pushed back on the idea of marrying Hickerson when asked about his comments in May, laughing and saying she did not believe that would happen.
Panettiere Had Spoken Openly About Their Abusive History
Panettiere and Hickerson’s relationship also had a documented legal history involving domestic violence. In 2021, Hickerson pleaded no contest to two felony counts involving injury to a spouse, cohabitant or partner and was sentenced to 45 days in jail, four years of probation, 52 domestic violence classes and a five-year protective order.
Panettiere later addressed the abusive relationship directly in her 2026 memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, and during an On Purpose interview with Jay Shetty.
She described the difficulty of permanently leaving an abusive relationship, comparing the connections that remain afterward to weeds that become tangled into a person’s life. Panettiere said she had once believed she could escape that cycle by herself before realizing she needed substantial support to keep an abusive partner from finding a way back into her life.
Hickerson separately acknowledged abusive conduct while discussing her memoir with TMZ in May. He said reading those accounts was painful but admitted his own behavior, including one incident he had asked Panettiere to remove from the book.