Rod Wave Is Charged With Battery After Choking His Ex-Girlfriend While Their Children Were Home

Rod Wave was recently arrested, and new details have come to light surrounding why. He was taken into custody during a traffic stop and charged with battery by strangulation in St. Petersburg, Florida on May 2. The arrest affidavit, obtained by Tampa Bay Times, adds that the Soulfly artist choked his ex-girlfriend while their two children were present in their home.

His former partner alleges that the 23-year-old artist entered her home in Osceola County and choked her “until she couldn’t breathe” because he suspected she was involved with other men. He then returned a second time and accused his ex-girlfriend of taking his phone, leading him to damage the inside of the house before driving away while their two daughters were asleep. The woman sustained a scratch near the left center of her neck.

Rod Wave was released from Pinellas County on $5,000 bail and pleaded not guilty to felony battery charges. He is now waiting for his trial date. This isn’t the most ideal scenario for the artist, who was gearing up to release his next album Beautiful Mind. Wave has since tweeted that he is pushing back his release date to June 10, coupling the announcement with a snippet of the song where he addresses the entire situation: “Just hope you don’t get it twisted, I love that girl to death / I make mistakes in my relationship I still regret / You know the life of a star, they all gon’ pretend / Can’t be moving off of emotions, letting new people in.”