In 2009, Chris Brown was arrested for viciously beating his then-girlfriend, fellow singer Rihanna.
Afterwards, Rihanna famously told Oprah Winfrey that she forgave Brown, and insisted he “made that mistake because he needed help.”
But Brown continued to find trouble. There were public brawls with other celebs and a 2013 arrest for punching a man in the face on a Washington, D.C. street.
On Tuesday, the singer was back in the news, this time accused of threatening a woman with a gun at his Tarzana mansion. Police swarmed his home for an hours long standoff which ended with Brown’s arrest on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon.
The latest incident comes as no surprise to the many who have been following his life and career over the years.
Brown was touted as “the new Michael Jackson” when he burst onto the music scene in 2005 at the age of 16 with a self-titled, multi-platinum album.
His fame grew even more once he and Rihanna began dating in 2008. With their matching places on the charts, the pair quickly became a match made in pop music heaven.
That fairy tale took a dark turn just hours before the 2009 Grammys, when Brown assaulted Rihanna, whose birth name is Robyn Fenty.
“Robyn F. turned to face Brown and he punched her in the left eye with his right hand,” the police report of the incident read. “He then drove away in the vehicle and continued to punch her in the face with his right hand while steering the vehicle with his left hand. The assault caused Robyn F.’s mouth to fill with blood and blood to splatter all over her clothing and the interior of the vehicle.”
Brown pled guilt to a felony assault charge and received five years probation, community service and an order to attend a year of domestic violence counseling.
The high profile nature of the crime — including the circulation of the photo of Rihanna’s battered face — has continued to color public perceptions of Brown.
The couple remained together for some time afterwards. In 2012, Rihanna told Winfrey that Brown had been her best friend and first love.
“I lost my best friend. Everything I knew switched … switched in a night and I couldn’t control that,” Rihanna said.”So I had to deal with that, and that’s not easy for me to understand or interpret. It’s not easy to interpret on camera. Not with the world watching.”
What has followed has not helped to restore Brown’s image.
There have been public physical altercations with fellow celebs including rapper Drake and singer Frank Ocean. Brown has been accused of everything from grabbing a cell phone to threatening paparazzi; he has done stints in rehab and has landed in jail for violating his probation.
A 2014 report from his rehab facility chalked up Brown’s aggression to bipolar disorder, post traumatic stress disorder and drug use.
“Mr. Brown will also require close supervision by his treating physician in order to ensure his bipolar mental health condition remains stable,” a letter from the facility reportedly stated. “It is not uncommon for patients with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Bipolar II to use substances to self-medicate their biomedical mood swings and trauma triggers.”
In April 2016 a trailer for the documentary “Welcome to my Life: The Official Chris Brown Documentary” was released.
In it Brown says that after the incident with Rihanna he contemplated suicide and he “wasn’t sleeping, I barely ate. I just was getting high.”
“I went from being on top of the world, No. 1 songs, being kind of like America’s sweetheart to being Public Enemy No. 1,” he also said in the trailer.
For many that label has stuck.
Following Tuesday’s incident legendary songwriter Diane Waren tweeted “Chris Brown got arrested for assaulting a woman today. In other shocking news the sun rose this morning and is expected to set tonite.”
Still, through it all Brown has maintained a loyal fan base. Many of his supporters have since news of the Tuesday incident became public been tweeting their support of the embattled singer, using his nickname “Breezy” for the hashtag #FreeBreezy.
Brown was charged on suspicion of “assault with a deadly weapon” Tuesday evening after a nine hour standoff with police. Police were called to Brown’s home around 3 a.m. local time. While they waited outside, he took to Instagram to slam the police and say that he was being targeted.
“Good luck. When you get the warrant or whatever you need to do, you’re going to walk right up in here,” he wrote. “And you’re going to see nothing, you idiots,” he said in one video. “I’m tired of … dealing with y’all.”
Brown was arrested, then transported to a police facility where he was formally booked, and released a few hours later on bail.
“My client’s position is that we’re cooperating,” Brown’s attorney Mark Geragos told HLN’s Dr. Drew Pinsky. “There’s no truth to it, and we’re going to let it play out.”
Geragos later tweeted that Brown was “out and well.” He also called the charges “demonstrably false.”