The remark was an apparent reference to Panettiere who died, aged 36, in Greenville on August 16.<\/p>\n
Her death remains under investigation and toxicology results have not yet been released.<\/p>\n
The Greenville County Coroner\u2019s Office previously said there were no signs of trauma, while the official cause of death has yet to be determined.<\/p>\n
According to accounts of Saturday\u2019s incident, Brian had been drinking for several hours with Zach at a table towards the back of the Wild Wing Cafe before getting up and going to the bar.<\/p>\n
He was reportedly speaking to other people when an argument developed and he picked up a bar stool and threw it backwards.<\/p>\n
Video from the scene showed Brian being picked up and carried out of the venue by another man as a bartender could be heard shouting: \u201cLet him go!\u201d<\/p>\n
Brian and Zach were subsequently involved in an altercation with other people outside the restaurant before Greenville police officers arrived.<\/p>\n
Zach was reported to be heavily intoxicated and shouting profanities and was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge. Brian was placed in handcuffs but was ultimately released without being charged.<\/p>\n
The incident comes as investigators continue examining the circumstances surrounding Panettiere\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
Brian recently met with the US Drug Enforcement Administration as part of the investigation, according to People, which reported authorities were following leads concerning a possible drug supplier. Brian has not been named as a suspect.<\/p>\n
Brian and Zach were both present at the Greenville property where Panettiere was found unresponsive.<\/p>\n
According to the police incident report, Zach told officers Brian had been sleeping in another room when Panettiere was discovered unresponsive in a chair.<\/p>\n
Zach said Brian administered Narcan, a medication used to reverse opioid overdoses, and that CPR was performed while they communicated with emergency dispatchers.<\/p>\n
Emergency services responded to the Greenville property after receiving a report of a woman in cardiac arrest.<\/p>\n
Panettiere was pronounced dead at the scene after attempts to save her.<\/p>\n
Authorities said there were no signs of trauma.<\/p>\n
The investigation has remained in the spotlight while toxicology testing is completed.<\/p>\n
Panettiere had released her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, earlier this year, in which she discussed her experiences with fame, addiction, motherhood and other difficulties in her personal life.<\/p>\n
The actor became internationally known as indestructible cheerleader Claire Bennet in the NBC superhero drama Heroes before starring as country singer Juliette Barnes in Nashville, a performance that earned her two Golden Globe nominations.<\/p>\n
Her film career included Remember the Titans, Racing Stripes and the Scream franchise, in which she played fan favourite Kirby Reed in Scream 4 before returning to the role in Scream VI. She also voiced Dot in Pixar\u2019s A Bug\u2019s Life.<\/p>\n
Her final film was the 2026 thriller, Sleepwalker.<\/p>\n
Panettiere and Brian Hickerson began an on-off relationship in 2018.<\/p>\n
Brian was arrested in connection with domestic violence allegations during their relationship and in 2021 pleaded no contest to two felony counts of injuring a spouse or girlfriend.<\/p>\n
He subsequently served jail time and was ordered to attend domestic violence classes.<\/p>\n
The latest incident follows renewed scrutiny of Brian\u2019s previous encounters at bars.<\/p>\n
TMZ reported last month that he had been banned from at least three establishments in the Greenville area in the months before Panettiere\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
Footage also emerged this month of a separate incident at Barney\u2019s Beanery in West Hollywood in August 2025, during which Brian was arrested after employees attempted to remove him from the venue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The remark was an apparent reference to Panettiere who died, aged 36, in Greenville on August 16. Her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1443,74,1554,17181,51369,5159,30811,634,38711,156,5504,2740,28024,296510,63787,283133,16718,78,111,139,69,23421,224853,675,94425,1240],"class_list":["post-601744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-about","tag-after","tag-alleged","tag-bar","tag-brawl","tag-brian","tag-carolina","tag-death","tag-detained","tag-entertainment","tag-following","tag-former","tag-girlfriend","tag-handcuffed","tag-hayden","tag-hickerson","tag-him","tag-in","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-officers","tag-panettiere","tag-police","tag-shouted","tag-south"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}