If you haven’t seen the video yet, please trust me that you don’t need to watch it. Last week, CNN released surveillance footage of an attack by Sean Combs, the rapper and producer, against his ex-partner, the singer Cassie Ventura, at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016. In the footage, shot in a hotel hallway and at an elevator landing, Ventura, in a hoodie, tries to flee the hotel room she was sharing with Combs. She appears to be in a rush – she has bags of her things, and when she reaches the elevator bank, she’s still trying to put on her shoes. She’s just moments from getting away. But Combs, naked save for a towel, marches down the hallway and finds her. He throws Ventura to the ground and begins kicking her. Later, he corners her and pelts a vase at her. The video ends when Combs drags Ventura, still on the ground, down the hallway, back to their hotel room. In the video, when Combs kicks Ventura, she lies perfectly still on the patterned carpet, her hunched frame carrying a practiced resignation. It does not appear to be the first time that this has happened.
The video matches allegations that Ventura made in a lawsuit against Combs that was quickly settled last year. In that suit, Ventura wrote that “in or around March 2016 … at the InterContinental Hotel in Century City, Los Angeles, Mr Combs became extremely intoxicated and punched Ms Ventura in the face, giving her a black eye. After he fell asleep, Ms Ventura tried to leave the hotel room, but as she exited, Mr Combs awoke and began screaming at Ms Ventura. He followed her into the hallway of the hotel while yelling at her. 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.”
