Newly released video shows social media model Courtney Clenney speaking with Miami police officers just days before authorities said she stabbed her boyfriend to death in their luxury Miami apartment.
Clenney is visibly upset in the Miami Police bodycam footage from April 1 that was recently released by the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office.
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The officers had responded to the One Paraiso condo building on Northeast 7th Avenue in Edgewater after building management called police to report a domestic dispute.
Clenney can be heard saying she wants a restraining order against her boyfriend, Christian Obumseli.
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In the video, a building employee explains to the three officers that he was the one who called police. The employee explains that Obumseli had been hanging out in the lobby since Clenney didn't want him in their apartment and said at one point he charged at her.
"We get down to the lobby area, her boyfriend comes charging towards her and we actually try getting in the middle of it," the employee says.
Clenney then explains to the officers that she wants a restraining order.
"How can I make myself first because I know him and he would do it," she tells the officers. "I have not always been the victim but right now I'm a freakin' victim, I'm scared to walk my dogs."
In the video, the employee explains to the officers that it's not the first time police have been called on the couple and that they were in the process of getting evicted.
The officers in the end escorted Clenney upstairs to make sure she's safe, but told her a restraining order has to go through the courts, explaining there's nothing they can do since Obumseli technically lives there with her and wasn't trespassing.
Two days later, Clenney stabbed Obumseli to death in their apartment, authorities said.
Clenney, 26, was arrested in Hawaii in August on a second-degree murder charge in the killing of the 27-year-old Obumseli.
From the beginning, Clenney's attorneys have said she was acting in self-defense when she stabbed Obumseli. In a statement Tuesday, defense attorney Frank Prieto said the new footage shows Clenney was seeking help "from an abusive and violent relationship" but was "failed by the system."
"It appears that the responding officers could have handled Courtney’s appeals for assistance with more sensitivity and an understanding that many victims of domestic violence are hesitant to come forward and have the police arrest their abuser," Prieto's statement read, in part. "It would also appear from the video that her former boyfriend’s violent behavior toward her was well known by her building’s security. On the video, she clearly asks for help in getting a restraining order and claims she is being stalked."
Miami-Dade prosecutors acknowledged the two were "involved in an extremely tempestuous and combative relationship" but said that Obumseli was the victim of domestic violence.
At a news conference shortly after Clenney's arrest, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle showed surveillance footage of the couple engaged in a violent encounter in the building's elevator on Feb. 21, about a month after they moved in.
"It certainly appears that the defendant was aggressively attacking Christian," Fernandez Rundle said.
Obumseli and Clenney had moved to South Florida from Texas in January 2022. Clenney, who went by the name Courtney Tailor on social media including OnlyFans, has more than 2 million Instagram followers.
Clenney remains behind bars without bond in Miami-Dade while she awaits trial.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline by calling 1-800-799-SAFE (7233), visiting www.thehotline.org or texting LOVEIS to 22522.
