NEED TO KNOW
Footage of a travel incident involving Porsha Williams and a fellow passenger has been released, showing how other passengers defended the Real Housewives of Atlanta star following the interaction.
On Sunday, Nov. 16, Williams, 44, was seen exiting a Delta Airlines flight in the Atlanta airport, accompanied by law enforcement. Then on Tuesday, Nov. 18, her lawyer, Joe Habachy, told PEOPLE that Williams exited the aircraft after she was “verbally assaulted by an irate and unhinged passenger without provocation.”
On Wednesday, Nov. 19, the Atlanta Police Department released bodycam footage of Williams and the other passenger separately detailing the incident. As Williams began recalling what happened to the officer, two separate passengers walked by and checked in on her.
She started to detail the incident when one of the witnesses approached her and asked, “Are you okay?” Williams reassured her that she was fine and asked if she was sitting nearby.
The passenger confirmed she was and told the reality star, “I was there. What I heard was reprehensible. The woman got in your face and gave you the middle finger, and was doing things that were completely chaotic to you. I’m sorry. I’m embarrassed. I’m so sorry. That’s why I’m asking if you’re okay. I wouldn’t be okay.”
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Williams then asked for the witness’s information, and as she did, another passenger approached and said he also saw the interaction from his seat, which was two rows behind Williams.
“She did not touch that lady,” the second witness said.
He then recalled the incident to the officer and noted that the plane was boarding when it happened. “Basically, there was no physical altercation. There was a verbal commentary kind of thing that was at a normal level. And then out of nowhere, it escalated in the sense that the lady to the right of her got really animated and started screaming,” he said.
“The only physical thing [Williams] did was point at her. And it was for some reason that just escalated to this point, where all [Williams] was saying was, ‘Don’t talk to me like that.’ ”
After the witnesses spoke to the officer, Williams explained what happened from her perspective. She said that the other woman told her to stop listening to an Instagram video out loud and then called her a “bitch.”
“From that point on, she said, ‘Who the f— do you think you are? ‘” Williams continued.
She said she asked for the woman to be moved away from her, while the woman simultaneously tried to get her phone to record the incident before claiming, “‘You just hit me in my face. Oh my God. I’m pressing charges. I want you to be in jail.’ ” Williams, who admitted she was “upset,” said that told the woman, ” ‘Get your ugly ass out of here.’ ”
The flight attendants then moved the woman from her first-class aisle seat to a different row in the section. “She was irate, so they were trying to hold her,” Williams said.
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The Atlanta Police Department bodycam footage continues with the woman involved in the altercation detailing her side of the story. She claimed that the plane was taking off at the time of the incident, “That’s why the flight attendants couldn’t help me from her beating, because they had to be buckled in.”
The woman said she requested that Williams turn it off her phone after “25 minutes.” But when she confronted the Bravolebrity, she said Williams put her “fingernail so close to [the woman’s] eye, that she believed she was “going to be physically attacked.” She then claimed Williams knocked her phone out of her hand.
As she concluded, she told the officer, “Here’s what I’m afraid of. I’m afraid she’s going to have me killed.”
Before the footage was released, Williams’ attorney issued a statement to PEOPLE: “The passenger then proceeded to make false allegations that were in direct conflict with observations from several eyewitnesses.”
“As with any incident occurring aboard an aircraft, federal authorities are required to conduct an investigation involving all parties to determine what, if any, offenses occurred.” Her lawyer added that Williams “has every intention of cooperating with law enforcement to whatever extent necessary, and remains confident that the passenger will be charged.”
PEOPLE reached out to the Atlanta Police Department for more information on Wednesday, Nov. 19.
