Alan Ritchson Breaks Silence on Altercation with Neighbor in Front of His Kids: ‘I Pushed Him Back’

Brenton BlanchetMon, July 27, 2026 at 8:12 PM UTC

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Alan Ritchson attends San Diego Comic-Con on July 25, 2026Credit: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty -

Alan Ritchson spoke out about his altercation with a neighbor during a motorcycle ride that was caught on video

During his Monday, July 27 appearance on Armchair Expert, Ritchson recalled his reaction when the man stepped in front of his bike while his kids were nearby

“I’ve got to protect me and I’ve got to protect my kids and I’ve got to get us off this street safely,” he recalled of his thought process

Alan Ritchson spoke out four months after an altercation with a neighbor, calling it the “scariest thing” he’s “ever been through.”

The Reacher star, 43, appeared on the Monday, July 27 episode of Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, during which he broke his silence about a physical altercation that was caught on video in March when he was riding a motorcycle around a Tennessee neighborhood with his children.

“People have no context about what was going on,” Ritchson said, adding, “The bike that I was riding that day, I had just received. It was custom-built for me and its exceptionally loud. ... I was just kind of plying with this thing while [my kids are] putting along, we’re hardly moving. It was our first time around. I never met that guy ever in my life.”

Ritchson was referring to a neighbor in Brentwood who got into an apparent physical altercation with him while he was riding the bike.

In footage published March 22 by TMZ, the Reacher star could be seen hitting the man as two kids sit on their own bikes in the road. The other man continued to confront him in the footage before Ritchson and the two children drove away. The actor has three kids with wife Catherine Ritchson.

Alan Ritchson attends the New York City premiere of ‘Motor City’ on July 13, 2026Credit: John Nacion/Getty

The man previously identified himself to TMZ as Ronnie Taylor and claimed he and the actor got into an altercation over the speed that Ritchson was riding the bike. He also claimed Ritchson “kicked the crap out” of him.

PEOPLE reached out to a rep for Ritchson and to local authorities for comment at the time, before Entertainment Weekly reported that authorities determined Ritchson was acting in self-defense.

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Now, Ritchson is claiming that he initially though the man was “just doing what everybody does” when they see him in the neighborhood.

“All of the sudden, he steps in front of me and I’m like, ‘What the hell?’ That’s when it got weird. I was like, ‘This is obviously not a normal reaction,’” Ritchson said. “But I wasn’t going fast and [that bike is] loud, so I can understand how somebody who doesn’t know what’s going on might be like, ‘It’s so loud, he’s racing through the neighborhood!’”

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“Anyway, I get myself together, he starts coming at me pretty aggressively, I push him down,” Ritchson said. “He was huge, the same size as me. ... And he was heated, so he stepped into my grill and I pushed him back.”

After the push, Ritchson alleged he could smell alcohol on his neighbor’s breath, despite the interaction taking place on a Sunday around 11 a.m.

“In my mind I’m like, ‘Alright, that’s what this is, just leave.’ So I go to leave and he gets in front of my bike again,” the War Machine actor said. “You can’t really tell from the body camera, but he two-hand shoves me off the bike, me and the bike go to the ground. That’s the second time I tried to leave the neighborhood and that was it.”

He added, “At that point, there’s no more conversation. I’ve got to protect me and I’ve got to protect my kids and I’ve got to get us off this street safely. And that means getting him out of the picture. So I hit the guy. As it’s happening, I’m like, I really can’t hurt this guy. I don’t want to knock him out. I don’t want to break a bone... But I wanted just enough where he was like, ‘Oh I see where this is going, I don’t want that.’”

Ritchson also pointed out that it was “strange” how footage of only the last few seconds of the altercation circulated from another neighbor’s perspective. He also reiterated the importance of wearing his own chest-camera setup, which he later showed to authorities, adding “If I hadn’t had that, I’d probably still be in jail.”

“The cops came to arrest me that day and they only had the tape to go off of,” he said. “Thank God. It was a gift from God I think that I had that intuition that I put it on, that I could wear that. It changed the course of my life forever.”

After the experience, Ritchson said his children still won’t ride with him anymore and that his neighbor “robbed me of that.”

He also thought that there was a chance he wouldn’t “work again” due to the initial response to the altercation.

“There’s no real resolution there. I just decided to let it go. But he still took a lot from me,” he said of the neighbor, as Dax Shepard commended him on trying his “hardest to get out of” the scenario.

Brentwood Police Captain Steven Pepin previously told EW in March that authorities determined “no criminal charges” would be pursued against the actor and that his “actions were found to be in self-defense.” He also told the outlet that police considered “a potential reckless endangerment charge,” but that Ritchson declined to press charges against the neighbor.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”