Almost 25 years ago, three New York City police detectives were called to the Midtown North Precinct just after 2:30 a.m. on a cold winter night.
Rap impresario Sean Combs, then known as Puffy, his girlfriend Jennifer Lopez, and bodyguard Jamal “Shine” Barrow, himself a rapper, are shot inside a Times Square club and watched by the sidelines. An arrest was made following the incident in which three people were injured.
Police found Lopez, then 30, handcuffed in a “cage.” Mr. Combs was also at the station building on West 54th Street, but plans for a grand celebration of the new millennium a few days later were put on hold.
Now, the events of that night and the sensational trial that followed in early 2001 are once again in the spotlight.
The infamous shooting and trial could be re-examined as part of a sweeping federal investigation into Combs, now 54 and known as Diddy, two law enforcement officials told The Post. It is said that there is. Combs reportedly had multiple mysterious shootings in the past.
On Monday, Homeland Security agents raided Combs’ homes in Los Angeles and Miami, which law enforcement officials told the newspaper was prompted by sex trafficking allegations.
“They’re looking at him in Miami, and federal authorities are recruiting witnesses,” Michael DiCioaro, a New York criminal defense attorney familiar with the case, told the Post.
“They corroborate everything they can. But everything, past and present, is on Mr. Diddy’s table now.”
A month after the Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones incident, federal agents broke into Diddy’s home. filed a bombing lawsuit It alleges that the music mogul repeatedly sexually assaulted Jones from September 2022 to November 2023, when he was a billionaire producer and videographer.
Jones likened Combs to Jeffrey Epstein, accusing him of groping her genitals, forcing her to have sex and coercing her to procure sex workers, strippers and drugs.
His lawsuit comes less than three months after Diddy settled an explosive lawsuit accusing him of sexual assault filed by his ex-girlfriend, R&B singer Cassie. Diddy is alleged to have run an Epstein-like operation involving sexual assault, human trafficking, and blackmail with hidden cameras, which he filmed. – Profile names for homosexual acts and other compromising positions in entertainment, politics, and sports.
Jones alleges in the lawsuit that Diddy was violent, threatened to “eat” his face, brandished a gun, and most pointedly “suspected witnesses and jurors in a criminal case related to the 1999 Shine shooting at a New York City nightclub.” He was bragging about bribing employees.”
The shooting stemmed from an altercation between Diddy and a Brooklyn thug named Matthew Allen, who went by the nickname “Scar.”
However, Diddy, his bodyguard Anthony Jones, and “Shine” Barrow endured a seven-week trial in February and March 2001, but the trial ended and Diddy and Jones were released, leaving the then-21-year-old The year-old Barrow was convicted of assault and gun possession and sentenced to 10 years in prison. prison.
The Club New York shooting incident remains shrouded in mystery, especially former Detective Parker, who left the New York City Police Department’s so-called “Hip-Hop Cops” unit and is now a private investigator.
Didi has long been plagued by rumors that he blamed Shine (now known as Moses Michael Levi Barrow, opposition leader in Belize’s House of Representatives) for the incident.
“The story was that Puff was flossing. A flosser is someone who throws money around on the street and acts like a big shot,” Parker said.
“Scar felt disrespected because he felt he was as important as Puff, words were exchanged and then bullets started flying.”
Shots were fired, and Lopez and Diddy fled the club in a Lincoln Navigator. Diddy’s driver, Wardell Fenderson, later said that as Diddy made his way down 43rd Street onto Eighth Avenue, he ran several red lights and passed two police cars.
“Shine’s crushed! Shine’s gone up in the air!” Fenderson quoted Lopez as saying before police stopped them.
Former New York City police detective. Derrick Parker told The Post about the situation inside the school district. “I told you not to get involved (with him),” I heard her say.
After being detained for 14 hours, Lopez was released without being charged.
Natania Reuben, one of the three victims of the club shooting, has long maintained that Combs shot her in the face.
“I literally watched them pull out a gun and had a clear vantage point. I mean, just to be clear, I got shot in the nose,” Ruben told NewsNation. He spoke during the performance.Report by Elizabeth Vargas” Thursday.
“I observed all events and diligently explained them to everyone involved. I have nine bullet fragments in my face.”
Mr. Jones alleges in his lawsuit that Mr. Diddy openly bragged about committing the shooting and bribing witnesses and jurors to secure his acquittal.
“Mr. Combs said he was responsible for the New York nightclub shooting,” Jones claimed.
They also claim that Diddy bragged about using Lopez to smuggle guns into the club.
“He shared that artist and said that Mr. Combs’ girlfriend at the time, Jennifer Lopez, aka J. Lo, brought a gun to a club for him and that she gave him a gun after an altercation with another person.” ,” Jones claimed. .
Diddy, through his attorney, denied Jones’ claims. His lawyer called the federal raid a “witch hunt” and accused the use of “military-level force.”
Diddy was assisted this week by Glenn Beck, who was working as a security guard at the club that night. He is currently a martial arts expert. Deadly Art of Survival Magazine.
Beck testified at the 2001 trial, but told the Post that prosecutors seemed intent on nailing Diddy and therefore did not question him about “Shine” Vallow.
He called Jones’ claims “bull” and said, “We knew Scar. We knew Shine. He was a wild kid from Brooklyn.”
Beck said Shine stormed out of the club just as a fight broke out between Diddy and Scar and returned minutes later without being searched by security.
“That’s when filming started,” he said. “Then, shortly after hearing gunshots, Shine ran out the side door of the club attached to the hotel.
“He ran out the door and was immediately arrested by two officers who were outside and heard gunshots inside the house.”
Mr Barrow admitted at trial that he pulled out a gun and fired the gun during the disturbance, and has not yet accused Mr Diddy of making the fall happen for him.
The newspaper was unable to contact Mr. Barrow in his native Belize.
Beck also disputed the possibility that Lopez was used as a drug mule, saying, “I remember her dressing very well that night, and she was very slim, and she wouldn’t hide a gun in that outfit. ” he said.
The newspaper reached out to Lopez for comment.
But the 1999 mass shooting is not the only one that federal investigators may revisit.
Jones also blamed Diddy and his son Justin Combs, a friend of Justin Combs known as “G,” for the 2022 mass shooting at Chalice Recording Studios in Los Angeles in which a friend of Justin Combs was struck twice. He claimed he lied about his role in the incident.
Jones claims he was present at the Chalice shooting, which occurred at a studio recording session called “Camp” where Diddy, Justin and “G” had a “heated conversation” and then went to the bathroom when gunshots rang out. It is said that
Photos in Jones’ lawsuit show the alleged bloody aftermath of the bathroom shooting. Mr Jones said he intervened to help ‘G’ who was bleeding and took him outside to an ambulance.
“Mr. Combs gave strict instructions to tell the police that he had nothing to do with the shooting,” Jones claimed.
“He also forced Mr. Jones to lie to police that G. had been shot by an assailant who was driving by while he was standing outside the studio.”
The Los Angeles Police Department did not return multiple calls from the Post, but a police spokesperson did. told NBC News Two months later, three people were arrested and charged with a series of robberies across Los Angeles, including the shooting death of “G.” Police said Mr. G said he was shot during a struggle with an attempted robbery.
Jones also claimed that Faheem Muhammad, Didi’s head of security, said: He was once Michael Jackson’s head of security Jones was a powerful fixer with connections to the Los Angeles Police Department and claimed he had “the power to make people and problems disappear.”
Management at Chalice, where Diddy has recorded multiple times, declined to comment Friday.
But Didi isn’t without other defenders.
LA rapper Grass Malone The former Crip, who grew up in South Central Los Angeles and was close to Diddy on many occasions, told the Post: “I thought Jones’ case was pretty disingenuous. This guy calls himself a Christian and yet he forced himself to get strippers and cocaine for Puff?”
Malone, who also uses the same network of Los Angeles recording studios as Challis and others, said his only concern in the Jones case was the shooting incident involving “G.”
“If true, this is the only time in the lawsuit that criminal intent has been shown to me,” Malone said. “And we’re all talking about this, but no one knows who this guy named ‘G’ is or where he is. That’s the mystery to me. ”
However, author and presenter Jason Whitlock Podcast “Fearless”, “Along with the avalanche of truth comes many distortions and opportunists.
“Didi might get buried in that avalanche.”
