Anna Paquin is in the headline here because Zach Hickerson said Brian Hickerson gave Hayden Panettiere Narcan after she was found unconscious at a Greenville, S.C., Airbnb. He said he immediately called 911, then watched Brian and others try to keep her alive until Fire and EMS arrived.
Greenville, S.C. account
Zach said on Friday that he was speaking directly from the moment Panettiere was found unconscious, not from hindsight. “I immediately called 911 and Brian gave her Narcan. We then jointly performed CPR while 911 was on speaker until Fire and EMS arrived. At that point we watched as they tried every measure possible to save her life,” he said.
He also said, “The truth will come out as the authorities complete and release additional details from the investigation” and added, “I want to clarify my involvement in an effort to keep the focus on the fact that we lost one of the most precious individuals on this earth and to allow those that cared about her to mourn without additional noise, chaos, and misinformation being created and propagated by the media as well as the public.”
Police report details
A Greenville, S.C., police report said Zach was very emotional as paramedics tried to revive Panettiere. The same report said Brian did not become emotional until paramedics declared that she was dead. That split in reaction is part of what has kept Brian’s role under scrutiny, because Zach’s account puts him in the middle of the emergency response rather than at the edge of it.
Panettiere died Sunday at age 36, according to her family. Her death also revived attention on Brian’s earlier record: a May 2019 arrest in Los Angeles on suspicion of domestic violence against Panettiere, a Valentine's Day 2020 arrest in Wyoming on the same suspicion, a July 2020 indictment on eight counts tied to incidents between May 2019 and January 2020, and an April 2021 no-contest plea to two felony counts of injuring a spouse or girlfriend that led to a 45-day jail sentence, with 13 days served.
Brian Hickerson record
For readers trying to understand why this account is drawing so much attention, the answer is in the overlap: Brian was not just present, he was the person Zach says gave Panettiere Narcan and helped with CPR. That makes the emergency scene inseparable from the violence allegations that have followed him for years.
What comes next is the release of more investigation details from authorities, and that will determine whether Zach’s timeline holds up against the official record. Until then, the most consequential fact is already on the table: the minutes before paramedics arrived now sit at the center of the story about Panettiere’s final night.
