Chris Brown and Rihanna’s rough night

Grammy night “turned into hell night” for R&B singers Rihanna and Chris Brown, said FoxNews.com. After the couple left a pre-Grammy party early Sunday, officers received a 911 call from a woman accusing “Brown of hurting her.” Then Brown and Rihanna cancelled their Grammy performances, and Brown was arrested for making criminal threats. Now it looks like Rihanna was the alleged victim—and Brown has some explaining to do.

To say the least, said TMZ. “Given there were allegedly visible injuries, the crime of making criminal threats is punishable by up to nine years in prison.” And even if Brown is found guilty of the lesser crime of domestic abuse, that can carry a four-year jail sentence.

But what makes Brown’s arrest “so strange,” said Glenn Gamboa in Newsday, is that “the 19-year-old singer is known for his wild dance moves, not a wild lifestyle.” He has always had such a “squeaky-clean image, both in his music” and “in his personal life.” Why would he do such a thing?

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Well, Brown has admitted that he was “a witness of domestic violence in his childhood home,” said Liz Kelly in The Washington Post. That doesn’t excuse “violence committed on anyone—man, woman or superstar”—but it may offer some insight into his alleged behavior. Still, we’ll have to wait until all the facts are in.