Video shows rapper Fabolous, just arrested on domestic violence charges, threatening girlfriend and her father
John David Jackson, better known as Brooklyn-bred rapper Fabolous, will likely be asked for fewer encores after footage of him threatening his longtime girlfriend and her father went live on TMZ during the weekend.
In the video, Fabolous, 40, lurched toward his partner Emily Bustamente and her father with what seems like a metal object. Fabolous’ bodyguard attempted to restrain the performer. At one point, the rapper told Emily’s father, “I got a bullet with your name on it!”
Both Emily—with whom the entertainer has two children—and a person who sounds like a child screamed during the skirmish in front of the couple’s Englewood, New Jersey family home.
This video came shortly after Fabolous turned himself in to authorities in connection with charges of aggravated assault and making a terroristic threat. Authorities reported the victim’s statement that her partner punched her in the face and caused her to lose two teeth. While Emily is not named by authorities, TMZ reported that she is the victim.
Multiple reports explained that Emily’s father and brother went to the couple’s home to remove guns from the residence out of fear of Fabolous’s inclination to use them on her before the argument ensued.
This ordeal coincides with public calls to consider people of color in the national discourse on gun ownership, social media users pushing back against insensitive ads that mock intimate partner violence, and many who remain concerned about masculine rage that hovers like rain clouds.
The rapper’s attorney characterized the video footage as normal. “This is only an argument,” Fabolous’ attorney Alberto Ebanks told TMZ. “There certainly is no crime being committed. If what you see in the video were a crime, we have to build more jails.”
About one-third of people who are injured by intimate partners receive medical care for their injuries, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. The coalition estimates that the presence of a gun in a domestic violence situations increases the likelihood of homicide by 500 percent.
Hopefully these family members will pursue and receive the support they need.