{"id":221167,"date":"2026-08-19T06:32:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T06:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/hayden-panettieres-ex-boyfriend-was-at-scene-when-she-died-police-report-says-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T06:32:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T06:32:21","slug":"hayden-panettieres-ex-boyfriend-was-at-scene-when-she-died-police-report-says-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/hayden-panettieres-ex-boyfriend-was-at-scene-when-she-died-police-report-says-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Hayden Panettiere\u2019s ex-boyfriend was at scene when she died, police report says – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

news Alerts
There are no new alerts at this time
Hayden Panettiere\u2019s onetime boyfriend and his brother were at the South Carolina apartment complex where the \u201cHeroes\u201d actor went into cardiac arrest and died Sunday<\/a>, according to a police incident report obtained by NBC News.
In the heavily redacted report, the Greenville Police Department said Panettiere\u2019s on-again, off-again partner, Brian Hickerson, and his brother, Zach Hickerson, were at the scene inside the apartment complex, Judson Mill Lofts.
The responding officer, identified in the report as Matthew Bryan, said he first spoke with Zach Hickerson, who was \u201cvery emotional\u201d while emergency medical services professionals were \u201cworking on Hayden.\u201d
The report goes on to say Brian Hickerson did not become visibly emotional until EMS declared Panettiere, 36, dead.
Brian Hickerson showed police a \u201cbag of medication\u201d that Panettiere was taking when she died, the report added.
Bryan, the responding officer, said he was wearing a body camera throughout the emergency response. The video recorded on that camera has not yet been publicly released.
Brian and Zach Hickerson did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday and Tuesday.
The Greenville County Coroner\u2019s Office has said the cause of death is pending further investigation.
In a statement, officials said that an autopsy was completed Monday and that \u201cno signs of trauma were discovered that would have contributed to the death.\u201d
Authorities received a 911 call around 1:50 p.m. Sunday about a \u201creported cardiac arrest\u201d at the apartment complex, according to the coroner\u2019s office. Police said an acquaintance of Panettiere\u2019s made the call.
\u201cPanettiere was found unresponsive inside the residence, where she had been temporarily staying,\u201d the coroner\u2019s office said.
The first responders initiated cardiac life support measures, but resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful, the statement added. Panettiere was pronounced dead at 2:32 p.m.
Panettiere\u2019s romantic relationship with Hickerson, an aspiring actor from South Carolina, appeared to end in 2020 amid allegations of domestic violence.
She wrote about some of those experiences in her memoir, \u201cThis Is Me: A Reckoning,\u201d which was published three months before she died.
In the book, Panettiere wrote that one night, Hickerson beat her so badly that she did not leave the house for weeks. She wrote that she hesitated to report the alleged abuse to police because she did not want the public to find out.
Hickerson was arrested on May 2, 2019, based on an allegation of injuring a spouse or girlfriend, according to Los Angeles County criminal court records.
He pleaded no contest on April 20, 2021, and was sentenced the next year to four years\u2019 probation.
Panettiere requested a restraining order against Hickerson on July 14, 2020. The court docket reviewed by NBC News does not identify the victim in the case of injuring a spouse or girlfriend, and the outcome of the request for a restraining order is unclear from the case record.
In a statement in 2020, Panettiere said she was going public about the abuse to inspire others in abusive relationships to seek help.
\u201cI am prepared to do my part to make sure this man never hurts anyone again,\u201d Panettiere said.
Hickerson\u2019s criminal defense attorney in the case did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday afternoon.
Panettiere was best known for her television roles as a high school cheerleader endowed with special powers on NBC\u2019s \u201cHeroes\u201d and a country music star on ABC\u2019s \u201cNashville.\u201d
Daniel Arkin is a senior reporter at NBC News.
Maya Rosenberg is an assignment editor based in Miami.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeHayden Panettiere\u2019s onetime boyfriend and his brother were at the South Carolina apartment complex where the \u201cHeroes\u201d actor went into cardiac arrest and died Sunday, according to a police incident report obtained by NBC News.In the heavily redacted report, the Greenville Police Department said Panettiere\u2019s on-again, off-again […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":221168,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-221167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}