Two Women Detail Abuse Allegations Against Former Brockhampton Member Ameer Vann
Less than a month after Brockhampton parted ways with member Ameer Vann — who denied sexual misconduct accusations that led to his exit from the group — two women are sharing new details about their alleged abuse.
In a new report published by Pitchfork, 24-year-old Shawna Berry, who said she was engaged in a brief sexual relationship with Vann over the course of a few nights in January 2015, claims she consented to intercourse but not the violence that came with it. According to the report, “Vann bit and choked her, leaving painful bruises and even causing her to briefly lose consciousness on one occasion.” She initially thought of it as a type of BDSM but ended up severing the relationship when “my body could not handle what Ameer was putting me through.”
Berry also told her roommate, who asked to go by just Kayla, about the abuse at the time. “Shawna had been more knowledgeable about sex than I was, and she told me that this was BDSM, and that master-and-slave style was his kink,” she told the publication in an email. “I was unsure because it sounded wrong, but it was her sex life, not mine… Nobody sits you down as a teenager and tells you how a BDSM type of sexual relationship is supposed to be.”
Kayla also told the man she was dating at the time, former Brockhampton member Titus Gilner, about Vann’s actions. While he didn’t make any further statement, Gilner referred to his tweets that were shared when the allegations first surfaced. “I know I should probably lay low on this. But I just can’t,” he wrote. “I stand with Rhett and anyone else that needs support and love.”
“dont follow me, dont like my tweets. dont GIVE me anything. dont support me, support these people that have been hurt! this is not about me. i am just making it known that i am willing to stand up if someone needs it,” he followed up in another post.
Singer-songwriter Rhett Rowan, who said she and Vann were in a relationship later in 2015 and previously spoke out against him on Twitter, described similar behavior. “I just thought we had this experimental type of sex life,” she told Pitchfork. “And I convinced myself it was ‘cool’ even though it hurt.”
In early May, after the initial accusations arose, Vann tweeted — and then deleted — a statement on social media: “In response to the claims of emotional and sexual abuse: although my behavior has been selfish, childish, and unkind, I have never criminally harmed anyone or disrespected their boundaries,” he wrote at the time. “I have never had relations with a minor or violated anybody’s consent.”
A few weeks later, Brockhampton also took to Twitter to announce that Vann was no longer with the band, and they canceled the remainder of their U.S. tour dates to “regroup.”
This article originally appeared on Billboard.