Scotty McCreery Abruptly Halts Concert After Seeing a Man in the Audience Assault a Woman

Scotty McCreery fortunately was quick to protect a woman at his concert. Apparently, the country singer was serenading the audience with his song It Matters to Her when he apparently noticed a man physically assaulting a woman in the crowd. On August 24, 2024, the former American Idol winner performed at the Colorado State Fair in Pueblo, Colorado, when he paused his concert. A concertgoer, Jessica Rosario, who posted the video about the incident on Facebook, told PEOPLE, "Scotty was talking about his wife [Gabi's] favorite song in this video. As he started to sing, he noticed a man who allegedly hit a female and stopped the show and had him removed by security." 

In the video, McCreery was seen pointing out the man, "Right here, that's a lady you just hit, sir," asking the security to get rid of the assaulter, "Absolutely not, you just hit the lady. Police? Security? Is she OK? Get the heck out of here." He later condemned, "On God's green earth. At a Scotty McCreery show? What are you doing? Y'all let the cop know who hit the lady. That's absolutely unacceptable." 

"We got 'em? [Are] we good down there?" McCreery asked the security guards about holding the man accountable before concluding, "Whoever you are, that's the definition of a coward, hitting a lady. Get the heck out of here." The singer then checked in with the audience if everything was under control before resuming the show for the night. 

Although the identities of the man and woman weren't disclosed publicly, Olga Robak, director of communications with The Colorado Department of Agriculture, confirmed, "We can confirm that an incident took place at the Scotty McCreery concert where a man assaulted a woman and the performer stopped the show." Robak said the Colorado State Fair security controlled the scene and added, "This incident is still under investigation and we cannot comment further." 

McCreery's career took off after he won the American Idol's 10th season when he was 17 years old. The country star from North Carolina beat his rival contestant Lauren Alaina in the season finale on May 25, 2011. Soon after, he released his debut studio album Clear as Day and the chart-bursting album hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 after its October 2011 release. A year later, he dropped another holiday album. Additionally, he published his first book Go Big or Go Home in May 2016, per Entertainment Weekly. 

His song, It Matters to Her, which the singer was performing on the day of the concert, was nominated for Digital First Performance of the Year at the 2024 CMT Music Awards, and McCreery even won the category. Meanwhile, Five More Minutes and In Between are the singer's additional country chart-toppers. 

On the personal front, McCreery married his longtime girlfriend Gabi Dugal in 2018, who is a pediatric cardiac nurse at Duke University Hospital. Dugal met the singer in kindergarten in North Carolina, per USA Today. The couple even welcomed a son Merrick Avery McCreery on October 24, 2022.