A Manhattan man has been arrested after he allegedly assaulted his girlfriend, and then filmed her as he forced her to walk naked in the streets of Harlem.
Police say that 24-year-old Jasson Melo (an NYPD spokesman said the spelling "Jasson" is accurate, although other outlets, including AP, identified him as "Jason Melo") assaulted his girlfriend (whose name has not been released) inside her Harlem apartment in front of her 3-month-old daughter last week. After that, he allegedly threatened to kill her, forced her to take off her clothes, and made her go to the sidewalk in a towel, all while berating her and filming her.
In the video, Melo pulls the towel away at one point near some garbage cans, saying, "You're going to pay the price like a whore, right there by the trash. Pose with your trash." The video was uploaded to LiveLeak over the weekend and spread around the web.
The woman was treated for bruises and swelling at a local hospital. Cops add that Melo left the 3-month-old in the apartment while making the video. Melo has been charged with five counts of choking, child abuse, coercion and assault.
"Earlier this week a video emerged that depicted intimate partner violence on a sidewalk in our city," said First Lady Chirlane McCray, making a statement on behalf of the Commission on Gender Equity. "The video displayed verbal abuse, forced humiliation, and harassment by the alleged offender, directed at his wife. Posting that video online perpetuated the abuse, which New York City does not tolerate. We are steadfast in our efforts to make sure all victims of abuse are aware of the many resources available as we strive to make New York City's public and private spaces safe for all women and girls."
As both the Daily News and Scallywag and Vagabond pointed out, Melo's Instagram feed has been filled with new videos in the past couple days in which he makes reference to the incident. Scallywag says that Melo is self-pitying in most, asking for forgiveness of his followers:
Jason Melo here. I want to ask all women for forgiveness. I want them to know, that really, I didn’t want this to - I didn’t think this would - get to this point,’ he says.
‘Maybe, I made a mistake, to do what I did, from the beginning to take her out naked. I really regret this. If I could turn back time, I wouldn’t do it. Because in my mind, so much has happened to me.
‘I came from a woman, I have a daughter, and I have two sisters. But look what you pushed me to do. I am sorry for everything. This the last video I will make, I don’t want any interviews, I don’t want anything’.
The apologetic rant ends with a video of him staring at the camera while wiping away tears, as a song in the background notes "nobody's perfect."
In another video from a few days ago, Melo laughs as he watches someone impersonate his girlfriend from the video.
