The office of Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón has said charges cannot be brought against Sean “Diddy” Combs following the circulation online of a video showing the music mogul punching and kicking his former girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura.
A statement, released on Friday, said: “We are aware of the video that has been circulating online allegedly depicting Sean Combs assaulting a young woman in Los Angeles. We find the images extremely disturbing and difficult to watch.
“If the conduct depicted occurred in 2016, unfortunately we would be unable to charge as the conduct would have occurred beyond the timeline where a crime of assault can be prosecuted.
“As of today, law enforcement has not presented a case related to the attack depicted in the video against Mr Combs, but we encourage anyone who has been a victim or witness to a crime to report it to law enforcement or reach out to our office for support from our Bureau of Victims Services.”
Captured from multiple angles and obtained first by CNN, the footage shows Combs in a towel chasing Ms Ventura down the hallway before attacking her near elevators. He then attempts to drag her back down the corridor.
The incident allegedly took place in 2016 at the InterContinental Hotel in the Century City area of Los Angeles. CNN verified the location based on publicly available photos of the hotel’s former interior.
After pushing Ms Ventura to the ground, Combs retrieves a purse and suitcase from the floor near the elevators. He turns around and kicks her again as she lies on the floor.
Ms Ventura is later seen in the footage slowly standing up and gathering items from the floor before reaching for a hotel phone on the hallway wall near the elevators. Combs, still in a towel and socks, returns.
A mirror directly across from the security camera shows Combs shoving Ms Ventura. He is then seen hurling an object at her.
According to CNN, Combs later paid the InterContinental Century City $50,000 for the hallway security footage.
The video appears to corroborate several allegations made in a lawsuit brought by Ms Ventura in 2023, in which she claimed she was trafficked, raped and beaten by Combs on many occasions over 10 years.
According to the complaint, which cited the altercation as occurring “around March 2016,” Combs became “extremely intoxicated and punched Ms Ventura in the face, giving her a black eye”.
After the mogul fell asleep, Ms Ventura had attempted to leave the hotel room, but he woke up and “followed her into the hallway of the hotel while yelling at her”, the complaint said.
“He grabbed at her, and then took glass vases in the hallway and threw them at her, causing glass to crash around them as she ran to the elevator to escape,” it stated.
The lawsuit also claimed that Combs brought the singer into his “ostentatious, fast-paced, and drug-fueled lifestyle” not long after she met him, and signed her to his label in 2005 when she was just 19 and he was 37.
Ms Ventura said that the pattern of abuse began as soon as their relationship started and that, as she was trying to end it in 2018, he forced himself into her Los Angeles home and raped her.
The lawsuit against Combs was settled a day after she filed it for an undisclosed amount of money.
Ms Ventura told CNN at the time she had chosen to “resolve this matter amicably”, while Combs’ attorney said the settlement was “in no way an admission of wrongdoing” and didn’t change his denial of the allegations.
The Independent has contacted representatives for both Combs and Ms Ventura for comment about the incident shown in the surveillance footage.
It comes amid a string of civil lawsuits leveled at the rapper and music mogul which have accused him of sex trafficking, sexual abuse and rape.
Federal agents with US Homeland Security raided two of the rapper’s houses in Los Angeles and Miami on 25 March as he faces a string of accusations. These date as far back as the 1990s, when he founded his record label, Bad Boy Records.
Combs has strongly denied all of the allegations against him. His attorneys have branded the lawsuits and their accusations as money grabs, “baseless” or “sickening.” The entertainer has not been formally charged or accused by federal prosecutors of any crime.
