Britney's Wild Night: Our Photographer's Timeline
Posted on Fri Jan 4th, 2008 3:50pm PDT By X17 Staff
In light of all the conflicting information flying around today, we thought it might be prudent to go to the source!We just got off the phone with one of our cameramen who was on the scene at the Summit last night and asked him for his boots-on-the-ground timeline:
Around 6:45: A man who the photogs presume to be Kevin's bodyguard (pictured above) pulls up to Britney's house to pick up the kids. After spending about an hour inside, the photogs present figured that the kids had already left through the usual exit, and went to confirm their suspicions with other photographers stationed back there. Much to their surprise, the other team told them that they hadn't seen any sign of the kids - at which point they started to get worried.
7:55-8:10:
Within a fifteen minute span, five cop cars arrived at the Summit. As each cop pulled up, the paps grew collectively more concerned about what might be going on inside the house. 8:10-8:50:
Around this time, Mark Vincent Kaplan showed up (an appearance his agent would later refuse to confirm). Our photographer reports that Kaplan stayed in the house for about half an hour before taking off. On his way off of the premises, Kaplan issued his normal no-comments to the assembled media before taking off into the night - click here to watch that video. 8:45: Sam arrives at the house and enters through the front door.
9:00: A swarm of helicopters suddenly appears over Britney's house, shining spotlights down on the premises. Our photographer sees that the exit through which he had expected the kids to leave is now lit up by their spotlights, and makes his way down to that position, where he sees "two or three cops inside the house".
9:30:
A fire truck and two ambulances enter through the back position while the cops set up a perimeter around the yard. Once that was taken care of, our photog saw a gurney being wheeled out, at which point he got very concerned for Britney's well-being. "I kept thinking 'Oh no, this is like Anna Nicole'!", he stressed to us; it wasn't until he saw the paramedics propping the gurney up into a seated position that he was able to relax somewhat.
Our photographer also remembered that, once Britney was about to leave, the circling helicopters (pictured below) "went crazy", dropping down out of the sky to blast their spotlights everywhere (and forcing him out of the area). He described it as being "so light it was like the daytime".
10:00-10:30:
Squad cars surround the two ambulances (#78, carrying Britney, and #97, carrying Jayden) and escort to them UCLA Medical Center - until, on the way there, the whole procession pulled a U-Turn! "Seriously," our photographer stammered, "can you imagine all these ambulances and all these police cars just doing a 180 in the street?" That proved to be the last wild turn of the evening, however, as the ambulances dropped Britney off at Cedars Sinai. Our photog's overall impression of the evening? "It was just a really scary scene - there was this huge mass of people crowding around the front of the house, all like 'What's going on?'" He also reports that, even at that early stage, rumors were already flying - he even related how people were saying that the cop accompanying Britney in the ambulance was there to arrest her! (Needless to say, subsequent events proved this allegation to be completely baseless.)
We'll have updated info on the results of Mark Vincent Kaplan's emergency hearing today in just a few, but in the meantime take a look at our picture gallery of the crazy night...
