TMZ released a video Monday showing NFL star Ray Rice knocking his then fiancée, Janay, unconscious.
"Inside the elevator it's apparent he strikes first ... she hits back ... and then Rice delivers the knockout blow," according to TMZ.
After the video surfaced, Rice was cut by the Baltimore Ravens and suspended indefinitely by the National Football League.
Amy Bonomi, an expert in domestic violence who has studied the Rice incident, said the video should be used to highlight the realities of domestic violence -- including the realities of mutual conflict in relationships -- but not mutual instigation.
"What the video should not do is point the collective finger back at Janay for 'instigating' the abuse," said Bonomi, chairperson and professor of the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at Michigan State University. "Violence of this severity within an intimate relationship is never instigated."
Bonomi can be reached at (517) 355-0230 or bonomi@msu.edu.
Read her Huffington Post blog posts on the subject:
NFL on track with domestic violence penalties but must follow through
Dear NFL: Put your money where all the concussions are