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# Tyson allegedly threatens bodyguard with knife at Santa Monica beach hotel
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/tyson-allegedly-threatens-bodyguard-with-knife-at-santa-monica-beach-hotel/
- Published: 2002-08-02T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T00:34:58.000Z
- Author: Carolyn Sackariason
- Tags: Environment, Santa Monica, #archive-import

Heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson was reportedly thrown out of an upscale beachfront Santa Monica hotel last week and asked never to return after he allegedly threatened one of his bodyguards with a knife.

Tyson, 36, had reportedly been staying at the exclusive Shutters on the Beach hotel for a few days before the alleged incident took place last Monday, according to sources inside the hotel. While there, employees and security personnel noticed a consistently strong odor of marijuana coming from a hotel room, reportedly where Tyson was staying.

“It absolutely stunk in the hallway,” said an employee speaking on the condition of anonymity. Several other sources also reported that the odor was so strong it was noticeable for days.

The odor apparently was so strong that hotel security called the Santa Monica Police Department. SMPD Lt. Frank Fabrega confirmed that officers were called to the hotel on July 22 at 4:30 p.m. by security for a “health and safety” report of narcotics activity in a “private celebrity room.”

A little more than two hours later, police were called to Shutters again — this time for a report of a man with a knife.

Sources who witnessed the incident say Tyson got into an argument with one of his bodyguards in the valet area in front of the hotel’s entrance. Becoming enraged, Tyson allegedly ducked into a nearby stairway that led to the kitchen of 1 Pico, the hotel’s restaurant. According to an employee in the kitchen, Tyson took a knife from a counter and began waving it around in the stairway.

“We were standing there and he started screaming f--- this, f--- that,” the employee said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Two of Tyson’s bodyguards, who were standing in the stairway, reportedly convinced Tyson to drop the knife, which dropped to the kitchen floor.

34F,SMPD officers arrived at 7:03 p.m. after they received a call by hotel security that there was a man with a knife there. When police arrived, they spoke to hotel security, conducted a few interviews with those involved and left about 40 minutes later. No charges were pressed by the hotel or the bodyguards.

Tyson’s cars and a limousine filled with several bodyguards and other people then pulled up, a source said. Tyson left without further incident.

Neither Tyson’s spokesman nor Shutters personnel would comment on the incident. They also wouldn’t confirm that he was at the hotel.

Tyson’s New York City-based manager, Shelly Finkle, cut off a reporter in mid-sentence trying to describe the incident to him and seeking comment.

“You can stop right there,” he said. “I don’t know anything about it, and it’s nothing I even want to know about.

563,“No one will comment on that or any other story you may run, do I make myself clear?”

Shutters spokeswoman Marjory Hawkins said it’s the hotel’s policy not to comment on its guests — past, present or future.

“Privacy comes with the room rate,” she said.

The ocean-view suite Tyson reportedly stayed in cost $1,500 a night. Nightly room rates range from $380 to $2,500.

Tyson over the years has had a troubled history with the law.

In 1992, he was convicted of raping 18-year-old Miss Black America contestant Desiree Washington in Indianapolis the year before. Tyson was released in 1995, having served three years of 6-year sentence.

He returned to jail in 1999 for assaulting two motorists during a 1998 traffic dispute.

Tyson was a juvenile delinquent when he was befriended by trainer/manager Cus D’Amato, who molded the 12-year-old into a heavyweight contender, according to an article posted on BBC Sport Online in May.

A heavyweight champion by the age of 20, Tyson was introduced to manager Don King two years later after father figure D’Amato had passed away, BBC Online Sport reports.

Tyson was the undisputed champ of heavyweight boxing until he lost to James “Buster” Douglas in Tokyo in 1990\. After his stint in jail, Tyson returned to the ring after tuning up with club fighter Peter McNeeley. Tyson then won a world title after crushing Frank Bruno in a rematch.

But Evander Holyfield was waiting in the wings, ready to take Tyson down. Holyfield, who signed to fight Tyson twice, beat him in 1996 and 1997\. He initially stripped the New Yorker of the world heavyweight title and then exposed Tyson’s monstrous side.

Tyson bit off a piece of Holyfield’s ear in a heavyweight boxing match, resulting in a revocation of Tyson’s boxing license and a fine of $3 million, which is the maximum 10 percent-of-purse allowed under Nevada regulations.

In the pre-fight build up to the Lennox Lewis contest this past June, he bit his opponent once more, this time in the thigh. He lost the fight.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 2, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/080202.pdf?ref=smdp.com)