Yahoo Finance Woman Insists Diddy Shot Her In Face In 1999 Club Shooting, Calls For Case To Be Reopened
Days after Homeland Security agents raided multiple homes connected to media mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, a woman who says he shot her in the face at a New York City nightclub in 1999 is calling for the case to be “reopened.”
Natania Reuben told NewsNation on a Thursday episode of “Elizabeth Vargas Reports” that Diddy shot her, even though a jury acquitted him in 2001.
“I literally watched them pull out the guns. I had a clear point of view. I mean, for God’s sake, I got shot in my nose. I was facing them directly. I watched everything occur and have described it, vehemently to all parties involved,” Reuben said. “I have nine bullet fragments remaining in my face.”
Reuben’s interview comes after producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones filed a lawsuit in February accusing Diddy of sexually assaulting and harassing him and of operating a racketeering enterprise, among other things. Jones also claimed that Diddy said he was “responsible” for the shooting on Dec. 27, 1999, at Club New York, where three bystanders, including Reuben, were injured.
Lil Rod’s claim stands in stark contrast to Diddy’s public denial and acquittal in 2001.
The shooting led to multiple arrests, including Diddy’s bodyguard, Anthony “Wolf” Jones, then-21-year-old rapper Jamal “Shyne” Barrow and singer-actor Jennifer Lopez, Diddy’s girlfriend at the time, according to a New York Times article.
“I don’t know if you know this, judge, but this person Jennifer Lopez is a very famous actress,” Diddy’s then-attorney, Harvey Slovis, said in 1999, according to the Times. “To think that Mr. Combs is walking around with her with a loaded gun and then going to pull it out, it’s so ridiculous that it stretches the imagination.”
During the trial, Reuben testified that she watched Diddy “pull out a black gun with his right hand,” according to The Washington Post.
She also recalled seeing muzzle flashes and then feeling like “a flaming hot sledgehammer had hit me in the face,” the Post reported.
Lopez claimed that Shyne shot the gun, according to ABC News.
Shyne, who had insisted that he fired the gun into the air, not at anyone, was sentenced to 10 years on multiple charges, including first-degree assault, reckless endangerment and criminal possession of a weapon.
Still, Shyne’s album “Godfather Buried Alive” hit No. 3 on the Billboard pop charts in 2004, while he was behind bars, NBC News reported.
Diddy, who had been charged with gun possession and bribery, was acquitted in the trial. Likewise, then-bodyguard Jones, who was also charged with gun possession and bribery, was acquitted. Jones was killed in 2003 during an altercation at a nightclub in Atlanta.
The 1999 shooting has reappeared in headlines since Lil Rod’s lawsuit was filed. His complaint counters the outcome of the trial.
“Mr. Combs shared that he was responsible for the shooting in the nightclub in New York City with rapper Shyne,” Lil Rod’s complaint says. “He shared that artist, and Mr. Combs’ girlfriend at the time, Jennifer Lopez, aka, J-Lo carried the gun into the club for him and passed him the gun after he got into an altercation with another individual.”
“I would absolutely, unequivocally like the case reopened. It needs to be reopened,” Reuben told NewsNation. “And the saddest part to me is, had people taken what I said more seriously and listened more intently, 24 years worth of people probably would not have had to suffer.”
Lil Rod’s suit marks the fifth against Diddy since singer-songwriter Cassie Ventura filed a lawsuit in November. It was quietly settled the following day, but three more women came forward detailing stories of sexual assault, rape or abuse by Diddy and other men in his orbit, including record executive Harve Pierre and singer Aaron Hall.
Diddy denied the claims in December. In the wake of the accusations, a reality show that was set to feature Diddy and his family was canceled prior to production, and Diddy has since stepped down as the chairman of the media company Revolt.
Diddy is also the subject of a federal investigation. Homes connected with him in Los Angeles and Miami were searched Monday by federal officials with Homeland Security Investigations.
“I finally felt like justice will be done, justice will be mine ― and belong to all of his victims,” Reuben told NewsNation.
“For the past quarter of a century, he has vehemently denied that he was responsible, even though I knew wholeheartedly, and so many others who are in the problem. We all knew he was responsible,” Reuben added.
