Actor Alec Baldwin arrested, assault over parking dispute

Actor Alec Baldwin was taken into custody after he allegedly punched a man following a dispute over a parking spot.

The 60-year-old actor was charged with assault and harassment and has been given a desk appearance ticket, the New York Police Department said.

According to CNN, the alleged altercation occurred in the West Village area of Manhattan on Friday.

Police said the two men were arguing and pushing each other before Baldwin stuck the 49-year-old man.

Baldwin was subsequently placed under arrest, while the victim was taken to a local hospital where he is said to be in a stable condition.

The actor, who was shortly released, took to Twitter to clarify that he never punched anyone.

"Normally, I would not comment on something as egregiously misstated as today's story. However, the assertion that I punched anyone over a parking spot is false. I wanted to go on the record stating as much," he wrote on the official Twitter handle of Hilaria and Alec Baldwin (HAB) Foundation.

"I realize that it has become a sport to tag people with as many negative charges and defaming allegations as possible for the purposes of clickbait entertainment. Fortunately, no matter how reverberating the echos, it doesn't make the statements true," he added.

It is not the first time Baldwin has run into trouble with the law. He was charged with battery, and later acquitted, in a case involving a photographer in the 1990s. He was arrested for disorderly conduct in 2014.

(With inputs from agencies.)