Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Comedian charged with disorderly intoxication
Popular comedian Hannibal Buress was arrested Saturday night in Wynwood on a disorderly intoxication charge after an encounter with a police officer.
Buress, 34, was booked into a Miami-Dade jail at 1:57 a.m. Sunday and posted bail just before 6 a.m., records show.
A video circulated on social media showed Buress handcuffed against a Miami patrol car and talking to officers.
“Am I under arrest? For what?” Buress yells in the video. “Explain what I’m detained for. What I am detained for?” For trespassing,” an officer replies.
Buress was not charged with trespassing. Miami police arrested him around 10:30 p.m. Saturday at Northwest Second Avenue and 20th Street —in the heart of Wynwood, which is hosting Art Basel-related events and drawing celebrities from around the globe.
Exactly what led to Buress being put in handcuffs was unclear initially. Until Sunday afternoon, Miami police declined to release the arrest report, saying a public-records request had to be made “during regular business hours.”
The report says Buress, bearing bloodshot eyes and a strong scent of alcohol, asked an officer standing at the corner of Northwest Second Avenue and 20th Terrace to call an Uber for him. When the officer declined, Buress became “angry and belligerent.”
The officer told Buress to leave, the report said, but he instead went inside a venue at 2000 NW Second Ave. The officer went inside to get Buress because he felt the comedian was too drunk to stay around.
“Once outside, the defendant stood by the front gate and continued yelling profanities,” the officer’s report says. “I, then again, asked him to leave the area about five times. A crowd began to gather and vehicular traffic slowed as they watched the defendant yelling and being disorderly. Defendant arrested.”
The comedian has starred in numerous standup-comedy specials, the show “Broad City” and as an actor in movies such as “Spiderman Homecoming” and “Baywatch.” He is also known for talking on stage about rumors of sexual assaults by comedian Bill Cosby, who was later accused publicly by several women.