11:11 AM PT -- The Prince George's County Police Dept. is releasing new information about the Delonte West street fight ... saying a witness told police Delonte initiated the Jan. 20 fight by hitting the other man with a glass bottle.
"[The witness] told officers that she observed the handcuffed male [West] first hit the other with a glass bottle and that man responded by striking the one who had thrown the bottle several times," cops say.
Cops say the incident took place around 9:45 AM -- and note that both West and the other man knew each other and had been involved in a dispute earlier that morning.