Soul singer Patti LaBelle is countersuing a West Point cadet who claims that she ordered her bodyguards to beat him outside a Houston airport in March.

In her suit, the R&B star claims the scuffle began after the cadet punched her son in the face and spewed racial slurs at her.

According to the Associated Press, the incident occurred on March 11 when cadet Richard King, 23, was waiting to be picked up by his family at a terminal at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport. The young man alleged that shortly thereafter, three of LaBelle’s bodyguards attacked him for no reason.

King’s suit was filed in early June and names LaBelle, her bodyguards, including her son and two others as defendants.

LaBelle’s countersuit, which was filed last week in Houston, claims that King was drunk and provoked her first at the terminal.

“King directed profane and racial slurs towards LaBelle,” the suit said, according to the AP. “When LaBelle’s son heard the profanity and racial epithets, he informed King that the woman in the limousine was his mother. Without warning or provocation, King violently and deliberately punched Edwards in the face.”

The suit also claims that LaBelle’s guards responded with a degree of necessary force. The incident was caught on surveillance video and shows King talking on a cell phone, as one of LaBelle’s bodyguards pushed against him. Then, it appears as if King pushed the guard back, though his lawyers have contended that he was just protecting himself from a punch. The videotape has no audio.

King’s attorney, John Raley, dismissed LaBelle’s suit, telling The Houston Chronicle that it was, “the same false story they told the police.”

“Thank goodness we have the surveillance videotape, which speaks volumes and neutral eyewitnesses who will testify that Richard was brutally assaulted without provocation,” Raley told The Houston Chronicle.

While Raley said his client did have a few drinks prior to the incident, he says the young man was not inebriated. Police did report smelling alcohol on King’s breath, but could not provide specific details of the actual incident.

Following the altercation, King was suspended from West Point for at least a year and he was ordered to go on active duty. Both suits are seeking unspecified damages.