Martin Kove, best known for his portrayal of the brutal John Kreese in The Karate Kid and Netflix’s Cobra Kai, is making news once more—but this time for a different reason. According to a recently revealed police complaint acquired by Variety, the 78-year-old was asked to leave a Washington fan convention for reportedly biting his Cobra Kai co-star, Alicia Hannah-Kim, during a VIP meet-and-greet.
“He bit me so hard he nearly drew blood.”
The disturbing incident reportedly occurred on Sunday at Summer Con in Puyallup, Washington, where Kove and Hannah-Kim were scheduled to greet fans. According to the police report, Hannah-Kim told an officer stationed near the VIP area that she had tapped Kove on the shoulder to say hello when things took a strange turn.
“He suddenly grabbed her arm and bit her so hard that he nearly drew blood,” the officer wrote in the report, Variety reported.
Even more bizarrely, the story claims that while Hannah-Kim yelled out in pain, Kove began kissing the exact region on her arm where he had bitten her. The incident reportedly shocked Hannah-Kim and her husband. She explained what had transpired, and the two approached Kove to confront him. That’s when things became heated again.
“How dare they confront him?”
According to the story, Kove did not apologize and instead “exploded” on the pair.
“He exploded on them, saying something to the effect of how dare they confront him,” according to the transcript.
The officer who documented the incident was requested to intervene and de-escalate the dispute. Kove reportedly informed the officer that he was “trying to be funny,” adding that they “play fight all the time on the set of Cobra Kai.”
Despite the frightening event, Hannah-Kim declined to press charges, but she expressed anxiety that this could happen again.
She “wished to have a report filed in case the pattern continues,” according to the report. Law police escorted Kove from the convention and warned him not to repeat such acts.
In the fifth and sixth seasons of “Cobra Kai,” Kove co-starred with Hannah-Kim, who played the fiery South Korean sensei Kim Da-Eun. However, if this weekend’s events are any indicator, there is undoubtedly friction between the co-stars offscreen. According to Variety, Kove’s representatives and Netflix have yet to issue a remark.
Kove, a martial artist and father of two, became well-known in the 1980s as the wicked John Kreese. However, with this recent incident, people are questioning whether he has pushed his iconic bad guy reputation too far in real life.