Brian Hickerson’s troubled history with violence allegedly stretched back years before he began dating Hayden Panettiere β including a 2010 altercation over which he was charged alongside his brother and father, the Daily Mail can reveal.
Now, Brian’s older half-sister Ashley has opened up about the other side of her brother and why she believes the actress repeatedly returned to him despite the violence that plagued their years-long relationship.
‘If I can say one thing about Brian, it’s that he is the most charismatic person and he draws you in,’ Ashley Hickerson, who shares a father with her half-siblings Brian and his brother Zachary, told the Daily Mail exclusively.
Panettiere, 36, died of an apparent overdose in Greenville, South Carolina, on Sunday where she had been staying in anΒ Airbnb. Both Brian and Zachary, with whom Panettiere also allegedly hadΒ a brief secret romance, were at the scene when she was declared dead.
‘I get why Hayden was with him,’ Ashley said. ‘Brian is just the type of person who can make you laugh no matter what and he can be fun.
‘We all have our demons. Brian was not raised that way. It wasn’t until he got into drugs that he went south.’
Hayden Panettiere’s had a years-long on-again, off-again relationship with realtor Brian Hickerson that was marred by domestic abuse
The 36-year-old actress tragically passed away on August 16 after suffering cardiac arrest from a suspected drug overdose
But the troubling incidents involving Brian began years before their romance, the Daily Mail has learned.
South Carolina records show that Hickerson, then 21, was charged in November 2010 with two counts of third-degree assault and battery by mob stemming from an incident nine days earlier in the family’s Greenville hometown.
His father, David Hickerson, now 72, and Zachary, 38, were hit with the same charges stemming from the same incident.
The obscure charges appear to have left little subsequent public record, and their ultimate disposition is unclear.
The Daily Mail has contacted David, Brian and Zachary Hickerson for comment.
Ashley confirmed to the Daily Mail that her family remembers the event.
‘Some people caused a riot with them in 2010,’ she said, adding: ‘That’s what my dad told me.’
Ashley Hickerson recalled the 2010 incident involving then 21-year-old Brian, brother Zachary, and their father. She described Brian as ‘charismatic’ and ‘fun’, adding that ‘it wasn’t until he got into drugs that he went south’
A heavily redacted police report released Tuesday revealed Brian Hickerson (left) and his brother Zachary (right) were with Panettiere inside a luxury Greenville apartment complex loft when she was pronounced dead
Eight years later, more violent confrontations also appear to have erupted within the Hickerson family.
In August 2018, RadarOnline obtained 911 logs indicating that Brian and Zachary got into a fight at Panettiere’s Hollywood Hills home.
Then, in October 2018, police were called to another violent scene involving Brian, this time at his family’s Greenville home while Panettiere was there.
The confrontation between Brian and his father David was reported at the time.
But an apparently overlooked passage in the police report reveals that trouble had already surfaced in Brian’s relationship with Panettiere.
During the investigation, Panettiere told the responding officer that Hickerson had ‘destroyed her kitchen’ the previous April.
Panettiere had traveled from Los Angeles to Greenville, South Carolina, with Brian, who is from the area, the day before her death
Ashley Hickerson and brother Zach Hickerson in an Instagram photo
Ashley opened up about the troubled man Hayden Panettiere repeatedly returned to despite his history of violence
That disclosure came months before allegations that Brian had physically abused Panettiere became public.
A cop had been dispatched to the Hickerson home shortly before midnight on October 26 following a report of a ‘domestic assault in progress,’ according to the police report.
Looking through the large front windows before entering, he saw David Hickerson with what appeared to be blood on his face.
Brian was behind him holding an object in both hands and ‘it appeared that he might be chasing’ his father through the kitchen, the officer wrote.
Panettiere, then in the early months of her relationship with Brian, was inside and appeared ‘frantic’ when cops arrived and she struggled to unlock the front door for police, the report said.
Brian was ‘visibly agitated, trembling and flexing his body and cursing’ when the officer confronted him, according to the report.
Once inside, the officer handcuffed Brian as he tried to establish what had happened.
Brian denied assaulting his father.
David Hickerson likewise declined to accuse his son and said his injuries resulted from a fall, although the report stated that the bruising on David’s face ‘appeared to be severe.’
The police report ultimately records the case as ‘exceptionally cleared’ because the victim declined to cooperate.
But Panettiere’s statement about her own kitchen β which came in a follow-up interview with Greenville police β provides a window into problems between the couple before the domestic violence that would later become public.
Brian was arrested multiple times beginning in May 2019 over alleged violence against Panettiere before pleading no contest in 2021 to two felony counts of injuring a partner.
Both Brian and Zach Hickerson were at the apartment where she died, the Daily Mail learned
Two Greenville police officers were snapped arriving at the South Carolina home linked to Brian and Zach Hickerson for a welfare check Wednesday morning, the Daily Mail revealed
An officer was seen knocking on the door of the four-bedroom home repeatedly but received no response from anyone inside
The couple were staying at the swanky Judson Mill apartment complex where she was later found unresponsive on August 16
He was sentenced to 45 days in county jail, serving 13 days, as well as four years’ probation and 52 domestic-violence classes.
Panettiere later spoke publicly about the abuse and the complicated bond that repeatedly drew her back to Brian.
Brian himself has also taken responsibility for his actions.
‘I got arrested for abusing her,’ Brian said in an interview with TMZ in May this year after Panettiere’s memoir was published, adding that he wouldn’t blame Panettiere’s friends for being angry with him.
When discussing with TMZ one particularly ugly episode that Panettiere hadincluded in the memoir, Brian acknowledged: ‘I did it. I did it.’
Ashley pointed out that her brother had owned up to his actions in the past and had worked on his issues.
Panettiere later spoke publicly about the abuse and the complicated bond that repeatedly drew her back to Hickerson
‘He is the type of person – he did seek treatment and he was getting help,’ Ashley told the Daily Mail. ‘He did own up to his s**t.’
She said she understood the attraction that repeatedly drew Panettiere back to her brother.
His charm, she said, could be extraordinary, despite the violent behavior that she said came from substance abuse.
Despite the well-publicized troubles between Brian and Panettiere, Ashley said the Hickerson family is now grieving her death.
‘A massive tragedy has happened,’ she said.
‘My family is really feeling this loss as well. If I could be with them I would.’
She said their father David, who was himself at the center of the bloody 2018 confrontation, has been particularly affected.
‘My dad is devastated,’ she said. ‘He’s taken it pretty hard.’
Ashley, who has served in the Navy since 2006 and works in military police, stressed that the violent episodes did not reflect the family in which Brian grew up.
‘My family, they are amazing people,’ she said. ‘I’m very protective of them.
‘My family and every family have their own issues.’
