Alec Baldwin Punches Photographer

Posted by IV on June 19, 2012 // 1 Comment

( 4UMF NEWS ) Alec Baldwin Punches Photographer:

An enraged Alec Baldwin punched a Daily News photographer in the chin Tuesday morning for snapping his picture outside the city Marriage License Bureau. The volatile “30 Rock” star popped lensman Marcus Santos once in the face outside the Worth St. office after apparently obtaining a license to wed fiancee Hilaria Thomas.

Santos was standing innocently with two other photographers when Baldwin, 54, approached with an angry glare.

“He was looking mad,” said Santos. “He said, ‘Step back, step back.’ I said, ‘We’re moving back.’”

Baldwin then grabbed a second News photographer, Jefferson Siegel, and Santos told the “Rock of Ages” star to back off.

“I said, ‘Don’t touch him,’” the 42-year-old Santos said. “I knew he was going to attack me. I stepped back, and he kept coming.

“He comes after me, starts shoving and punching me — one time, right in the chin. And then he started shoving me, and pushing me. Then he goes the other way.”

Santos, who joined the Daily News staff two years ago, said he filed an assault complaint with the NYPD against Baldwin — whose history of anger mismanagement includes two previous attacks on photographers.

Police were investigating, and it was unclear if Baldwin would be arrested.

Eyewitness Goran Veljic said Baldwin’s face filled with rage as he went after the photographers.

“He was like crazy, you know?” said freelancer Veljic, who takes photos outside the office every day. “There was an eruption of mad. … You’re going to get a marriage license, you should be happy. What happened with this guy?”

Baldwin, whose first marriage to Oscar-winning actress Kim Basinger ended in a contentious divorce, had seemingly found serenity with his younger yoga instructor.

But his notoriously nasty side surfaced on the otherwise happy occasion as Baldwin stormed away without saying a word. Thomas, 28, was walking behind Baldwin when the punch was thrown.

An unrepentant Baldwin presented his version of the clash via Twitter:

He also bizarrely compared the incident to the fatal Florida shooting of Trayvon Martin: “I suppose if the offending paparazzi was wearing a hoodie and I shot him, it would all blow over ..”

Baldwin spokesman Matthew Hiltzik claimed the photographer instigated the incident. Santos became upset when a passerby blocked his shot of Baldwin and Thomas, the statement said.

“The photographer was clearly frustrated, pushed past the bystanders and assaulted Alec with his camera,” the statement continued. “There were no punches thrown, and any subsequent physical contact was simply Alec protecting himself.”

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