A newly released video shows social media model Courtney Clenny talking to Miami police officers just days before authorities say she stabbed her boyfriend to death in their luxury Miami apartment.
Clenney is visibly upset in Miami police body camera footage from April 1 that was recently released by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office.
Officers responded to the One Paraiso apartment 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.
christianvstoby via Instagram Courtney Clenney and Christian Obumseli
In the video, the building worker explains to the three officers that he was the one who called the police. The employee explains that Obumseli has been hanging out in the lobby since Clenney didn’t want him in their apartment and she said he lunged at her at one point.
“We go down to the lobby, her boyfriend is coming at her and we’re actually trying to get into it,” says the employee.
Clenney then explains to the officers that he wants a restraining order.
“How do I make myself first because I know him and he would do that,” she tells the officers. “I haven’t always been a victim, but right now I’m a fucking victim, I’m scared to walk my dogs.”
In the video, the officer explains to the officers that this is not the first time the police have been called to the couple and that they were in the process of being evicted.
Officers eventually escorted Clenney upstairs to make sure she was safe, but told her the restraining order had to go through the courts, explaining there was nothing they could do because Obumseli technically lived there with her and wasn’t trespassing.
Two days later, Clenney stabbed Obumseli to death in their apartment, authorities said.
NBC 6 anchor Cherney Ahmara has more on what this means next in the case.
Clenney, 26, was arrested in Hawaii in August on charges of second-degree murder in the slaying of 27-year-old Obumseli.
From the beginning, Clenney’s lawyers said she was acting in self-defense when she stabbed Obumseli. In a statement Tuesday, defense attorney Frank Prieto said the new video showed Clenney sought help “from an abusive and abusive relationship,” but “the system failed.”
“It appears that the responding officers could have handled Courtney’s pleas for help with greater sensitivity and understanding that many victims of domestic violence are reluctant to come forward and have the police arrest their abuser,” Priet’s statement read in part. “It also appears from the video that her ex-boyfriend’s violent behavior towards her is well known to her building’s security. In the video, she is clearly asking for help getting a restraining order and claims she is being stalked.”
Miami-Dade prosecutors acknowledged the two were “engaged in an extremely tumultuous and combative relationship,” but said Obumseli was a 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 violently fighting in the building’s elevator on Feb. 21, about a month after they moved in.
The OnlyFans model and her boyfriend were involved in a “tumultuous” relationship for months before she fatally stabbed him, prosecutors say. NBC 6’s Jamie Guirola reports
“It certainly appears that the defendant was aggressively attacking Christian,” Fernandez Rundle said.
Obumseli and Clenney moved to South Florida from Texas in January 2022. Clenney, who goes by the name Courtney Tailor on social media, including OnlyFans, has more than 2 million followers on Instagram.
Clenney remains behind bars without bond in Miami-Dade pending trial.
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