Originally filed Tuesday, September 18, 2018 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
LaMorris Sellers, V-103 host Wanda Smith's husband, said in an exclusive interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Tuesday that he did not point a gun at Emmy-winning comic Katt Williams on Saturday night outside the Atlanta Comedy Theater in Norcross.
But he readily admitted he chased after Williams into the neighboring Food Depot supermarket because he felt Williams was verbally assaulting his wife for no good reason.
He said he saw Williams make a bee-line toward Smith outside the club Saturday.
“There’s the lady of the hour,” Williams said at first, according to Sellers.
Sellers said Williams then puffed a cigarette and told her menacingly, "I told you f**king with me would make you go viral!" [A video of their exchange on air had been seen by millions of people by then.]
That’s when Sellers stepped in, telling Williams, “Bro. You need to find something else to do.”
Sellers said at that moment, Williams “turned up 50 notches. He said, “You find something to do? I’ll fight you! I’ll fight your big a**!”
Williams, he said, stepped toward Sellers. In response, he started going toward Williams and Williams quickly bolted toward the Food Depot. Sellers, who is 6’2’’ and 370 pounds, got around Williams’ hefty bodyguard and began chasing the fleeing comedian. The bodyguard caught up to Sellers and they began tussling, Sellers said.
That’s when Sellers said his gun fell out of his waistband and dropped to the ground. Williams saw that and kept running into the supermarket. Sellers said he quickly picked the gun back up and resumed chase.
He said he got to the register area inside the Food Depot and saw Williams had retreated into the aisles. With customers staring at them, Sellers decided to back off.
“I wasn’t trying to cause a commotion,” Sellers said. “I proceeded to walk past the bodyguard. I apologized. ‘Nothing personal against you. He doesn’t pay you enough to do this job.’ I could tell from his expression and demeanor he didn’t want no part of what Katt was doing.” [Sellers never got the bodyguard’s name.]
Sellers said he has carried a gun with him for 10 years and sometimes forgets he even has it. He did not have his gun in a holster that night.
He wanted to make things clear that Williams instigated the situation, not him. The day before, Williams and Smith roasted each other on air on V-103 in a way that made Smith feel put upon.
“This situation made me look like the weakest, lamest person in the world,” Sellers said. “It made me look like I got mad because my wife got roasted by Katt Williams on the air. It had nothing to do with what was on the air. That’s what comedians do. When he came to the club, he targeted my wife. As a man, I’m not built like that. I couldn’t possibly let that happen. I have to protect my wife. I wasn’t looking for conflict. I just wanted him to keep it moving. He chose to do different.”
Sellers, who has been married to Smith for nine years, believes Williams created drama to help generate headlines to promote his upcoming tour and Netflix special.
To the Gwinnett County police officer, Williams claimed that Sellers stuck a gun to his face. Though there was no video of the tussle between Sellers and the bodyguard outside the club, the Food Depot video indicated no gun in sight.
“He never saw the barrel of the gun,” Sellers said. “The video shows I had nothing in my hand. I had shoved it back into my waist.”
To TMZ Monday night after the Emmy's, Williams declined to say anything definitive about the incident, instead asking quizzically, "If someone did pull out a gun, why would you do that for? If it's not to shoot somebody, what is it?"
The TMZ reporter asked, "Do you scare easy?" "Yes," Williams replied.
My colleague Sheila Poole reached out to Williams' PR person, who said he is not doing any formal interviews.
Sellers said this has been a stressful few days for his wife and he himself has gotten all sorts of nasty notes on social media from Williams fans. “She’s taking things day by day,” he said. “This is not the kind of lifestyle we lead. We’re not chaotic people. We’re laid back home bodies.”
UPDATE 9/19/18: TMZ released a video from a bystander which shows Sellers walking toward the Food Depot after Williams ran into the supermarket. Sellers appears to have his gun in his right hand and TMZ helpfully places an arrow there at about the 1:15 point of the video. This video does not show any moment where he held a gun to William’s head. The bystander is chortling as he says, “Katt hauled a** into the store!”
In a follow-up interview, Sellers said the video coincides with what he said happened. After the scuffle with the bodyguard, he picked up the gun and walked toward the store but said he shoved it back in his waistband before he entered the Food Depot. By the time he was in the market, he no longer had the gun in hand. There is no video evidence of Sellers ever raising the gun toward Williams.
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