Love Story this ain't.
A series of 911 calls released by the Malibu Sheriff's Department and obtained by E! News offers insight into an incident last Saturday that resulted in Ryan O'Neal getting arrested for allegedly assaulting his 42-year-old son, Griffin, as well as his son's pregnant girlfriend, 22-year-old JoAnne Berry.
On one of the recordings, a panicky Berry calls for an ambulance shortly after midnight and relates her injury to the dispatcher while two men, presumably the O'Neals, are heard arguing in the background. [Listen to clip 1]
"I got hit by something. I can't see. Help me! Help me!" the woman shouts frantically. [Listen to clip 2]
Berry is interrupted by a man's voice asking her where the keys are. She replies that they're in her bag upstairs.
"Hurry! I'm in a lot of pain. I'm pregnant...I see lights. Help!" Berry tells the dispatcher, repeating Ryan O'Neal's address over and over.
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputies and paramedics arrived on the beachfront estate within minutes and treated Berry for unspecified injuries.
A recording made of a call between California Highway Patrol and the sheriff's station reveals that the victim was apparently struck in the eye, though by whom and exactly with what object remains a mystery. (Griffin O'Neal told authorities that his father caused the injury; Ryan O'Neal issued a statement Monday blaming his son for hurting Berry.)
In another 911 call, the L.A. County Fire Department reports gunfire at the residence.
"Somebody came out of the house and…said that the person inside the house was armed and had fired," a crew member relates. [Listen to clip 3]
Officers took the elder O'Neal into custody after determining that Griffin O'Neal "had been assaulted by his father."
The 65-year-old Irreconcilable Differences star was booked at the Lost Hills sheriff's station (where Mel Gibson was taken after his infamous meltdown) on charges of assault with a deadly weapon and negligent discharge of a firearm. The actor remained there until 5:30 a.m. and was released after posting $50,000 bond.
He told the Los Angeles Times in a telephone interview that his son and Berry dropped in on his Malibu mansion shortly after he returned home from a 60th birthday party for former partner Farrah Fawcett, who had announced earlier Friday that she had beaten cancer after four months of aggressive treatment.
According to the elder O'Neal, he and his son got into an argument and Griffin O'Neal grabbed a fireplace poker and started swinging it around, nicking Ryan O'Neal four or five times. At that point, O'Neal said he was acting in self-defense.
"[He] aimed at my head, I ducked, he hit his own girlfriend in the head," the elder O'Neal recounted in the Times. "She's seven months pregnant. I got a little nervous at that point and fled to my room...and I got my gun.
"[Griffin] started to come up the stairs again with the poker in his hand. So I just fired it into the banister, and that scared him and he fled."
O'Neal's manager, Neil Hassman, relayed a similar account on Monday, claiming his client was innocent of the charges and pinning the blame on Griffin.
"It is unfortunate that what should have been an internal family disagreement was escalated to the point that Ryan felt he had to defend himself from Griffin's aggressive, extremely menacing physical behavior in the way that he did," Hassman said in a statement.
Neither Griffin O'Neil nor Berry could be reached for comment Tuesday.
This isn't the first smackdown between father and son. Per the Times, the two got into a scrap in 1983 that resulted in officers being called to their home. The elder O'Neal knocked out Griffin's two front teeth, but no charges were filed.
The younger O'Neal, whose acting resume includes such turkeys as April Fool's Day, Assault of the Killer Bimbos and Ghoulies III, has had his share of legal troubles as well.
In 1987, when he was 21, Griffin was sentenced to an 18-day jail sentence, fined $200 and placed on 18 months' probation after being convicted of reckless boating for his role in the fatal accident that resulted in the death of Gian-Carlo Coppola, son of Francis Ford Coppola.
In 1989, Griffin O'Neal pleaded no contest to a drunken driving charge, and, in 1992, he pleaded no contest to charges that he fired a shot at his estranged girlfriend's car. No one was in the vehicle at the time. He agreed to undergo a yearlong stint in rehab and served fives years of probation.
Meanwhile, Ryan O'Neal, who was one of Hollywood's most sought after leading men in the 1970s and scored an Oscar nomination for 1970's Love Story, was back at work Monday on the Fox series Bones, in which he's making a guest appearance.