May 19, (THEWILL)- The office of Los Angeles District Attorney, George Gascón, has said that charges cannot be brought against Sean Combs, aka Diddy, following the circulation of an online video showing the music mogul punching and kicking his former girlfriend, singer, Casandra Ventura, aka Cassie.
“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,” the police department said.
Captured from multiple angles, the footage shows Diddy in a towel chasing Cassie 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.
In the video, Ventura exits a hotel room and walks to a bank of elevators. Combs, holding a towel around his waist, runs down a hall after her. He grabs her by the back of the neck and throws her to the floor. Still holding his towel closed with one hand, he then turns to kick her, the video shows.
As Cassie is on the ground, Diddy retrieves a purse and suitcase from the floor near the elevators. He turns around and kicks Cassie again as she lies motionless on the floor. About four seconds transpire between the two kicks, according to the video. He then briefly drags Cassie by her sweatshirt toward a room before walking away.
Cassie is then seen slowly standing up. She gathers items from the floor and moves to pick up a phone on the hallway wall near the elevators. Diddy, still in a towel and socks, returns.
A mirror directly across from the security camera shows Diddy appearing to shove Cassie.
Seconds later, he sits down on a chair, grabs an object off a table and forcefully throws it towards her. Combs is seen walking away, then turns towards Cassie once again when an elevator door opens and someone appears to exit.
Cassie, who reached an undisclosed settlement with Combs, declined to comment on the video.
Diddy has previously denied Cassie’s allegations.
But in Cassie’s lawsuit against Diddy which she later withdrew, she cited the altercation as occurring around March 2016, saying that Diddy became extremely intoxicated and punched her in the face, giving her a black eye.
After Diddy fell asleep, Cassie attempted to leave the hotel room, but he woke up and followed her into the hallway of the hotel while yelling at her, the lawsuit read.
“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,” the complaint alleged.
After Cassie got in the elevator, her complaint states that she took a cab to her apartment.
“Upon realising that her running away would cause Mr Combs to be even angrier with her, and completely stuck in his vicious cycle of abuse, Ms. Ventura returned to the hotel with the intention of apologising for running away from her abuser,” the complaint claims.
“When she returned, hotel security staff urged her to get back into a cab and go to her apartment, suggesting that they had seen the security footage showing Mr. Combs beating Ms. Ventura and throwing glass at her in the hotel hallway.”
The complaint alleges Combs paid the InterContinental Century City $50,000 for the hallway security footage from that.
The incident was part of a number of allegations made in the November lawsuit in which Cassie said she was raped in 2018 and subjected to years of repeated physical and other abuses by Combs.
