Empire Star Bryshere Gray Arrested On Domestic Violence Charges After SWAT Team Standoff

This is terrible.

Bryshere Gray — most famous for his role as Hakeem Lyon on Empire — was taken into police custody early Monday morning after a disturbing domestic violence incident involving his wife. According to police sources who spoke about the matter to TMZ, the 26-year-old Philadelphia-born actor allegedly committed several acts of violence against his partner late Sunday night that eventually blew up into a full-on SWAT team standoff involving crisis negotiators.

In the small western Phoenix suburb of Goodyear, cops first received a call to assist a woman at about 10:15 p.m. that evening at a local gas station. When officers arrived there, they determined a woman had flagged down a fellow driver for help, getting that person to call the cops. She told police she’d allegedly been assaulted by Bryshere “for several hours” at their home in the area, even temporarily losing consciousness while allegedly being strangled by the actor before she was able to escape and reach the gas station for help.

According to police, his wife had “numerous visible injuries” on her body and was taken to a local hospital for treatment. Hours later, on Monday morning, she was released.

As that was going on, police made contact with Gray at his home, but cops claim he refused to leave to be arrested, and eventually barricaded himself inside the house. A SWAT team quickly arrived with crisis negotiators in tow to talk the star down and reach a peaceful conclusion. Thankfully, more than eight hours later, at around 7:00 a.m. local time on Monday morning, he eventually walked out of the house and peacefully surrendered to law enforcement officers.

Bryshere was taken into custody and booked at the Maricopa County Jail in Phoenix. He’s been charged with one felony (aggravated assault, strangling) and two misdemeanors (domestic violence and disorderly conduct) for his alleged role in the incident. His reps have yet to comment publicly about the incident, or his arrest. We’ll keep you updated as these allegations work their way through the legal system.

[Image via Derrick Salters/WENN]