Days after Homeland Safety brokers raided a number of properties related to media mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, a girl who says he shot her within the face at a New York Metropolis nightclub in 1999 is asking for the case to be “reopened.”
Natania Reuben instructed NewsNation on a Thursday episode of “Elizabeth Vargas Stories” that Diddy shot her, although a jury acquitted him in 2001.
“I actually watched them pull out the weapons. I had a transparent viewpoint. I imply, for God’s sake, I received shot in my nostril. I used to be dealing with them instantly. I watched the whole lot happen and have described it, vehemently to all events concerned,” Reuben stated. “I’ve 9 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 working a racketeering enterprise, amongst different issues. Jones additionally claimed that Diddy stated he was “accountable” for the taking pictures on Dec. 27, 1999, at Membership New York, the place three bystanders, together with Reuben, have been injured.
Lil Rod’s declare stands in stark distinction to Diddy’s public denial and acquittal in 2001.
The taking pictures led to a number of arrests, together with Diddy’s bodyguard, Anthony “Wolf” Jones, then-21-year-old rapper Jamal “Shyne” Barrow and singer-actor Jennifer Lopez, Diddy’s girlfriend on the time, in line with a New York Occasions article.
“I don’t know if you already know this, decide, however this individual Jennifer Lopez is a really well-known actress,” Diddy’s then-attorney, Harvey Slovis, stated in 1999, in line with the Occasions. “To assume that Mr. Combs is strolling round together with her with a loaded gun after which going to tug it out, it’s so ridiculous that it stretches the creativeness.”
In the course of the trial, Reuben testified that she watched Diddy “pull out a black gun together with his proper hand,” in line with The Washington Put up.
She additionally recalled seeing muzzle flashes after which feeling like “a flaming scorching sledgehammer had hit me within the face,” the Put up reported.
Lopez claimed that Shyne shot the gun, in line with ABC Information.
Shyne, who had insisted that he fired the gun into the air, not at anybody, was sentenced to 10 years on a number of prices, together with first-degree assault, reckless endangerment and legal possession of a weapon.
Nonetheless, Shyne’s album “Godfather Buried Alive” hit No. 3 on the Billboard pop charts in 2004, whereas he was behind bars, NBC Information reported.
Diddy, who had been charged with gun possession and bribery, was acquitted within the trial. Likewise, then-bodyguard Jones, who was additionally charged with gun possession and bribery, was acquitted. Jones was killed in 2003 throughout an altercation at a nightclub in Atlanta.
The 1999 taking pictures has reappeared in headlines since Lil Rod’s lawsuit was filed. His grievance counters the end result of the trial.
“Mr. Combs shared that he was chargeable for the taking pictures within the nightclub in New York Metropolis with rapper Shyne,” Lil Rod’s grievance says. “He shared that artist, and Mr. Combs’ girlfriend on the time, Jennifer Lopez, aka, J-Lo carried the gun into the membership for him and handed him the gun after he received into an altercation with one other particular person.”
“I might completely, unequivocally just like the case reopened. It must be reopened,” Reuben instructed NewsNation. “And the saddest half to me is, had individuals taken what I stated extra severely and listened extra intently, 24 years price of individuals most likely wouldn’t have needed to endure.”
Lil Rod’s swimsuit marks the fifth towards Diddy since singer-songwriter Cassie Ventura filed a lawsuit in November. It was quietly settled the next day, however three extra girls got here ahead detailing tales of sexual assault, rape or abuse by Diddy and different males in his orbit, together with report govt Harve Pierre and singer Aaron Corridor.
Diddy denied the claims in December. Within the wake of the accusations, a actuality present that was set to characteristic Diddy and his household was canceled previous to manufacturing, and Diddy has since stepped down because the chairman of the media firm Revolt.
Diddy can also be the topic of a federal investigation. Houses related with him in Los Angeles and Miami have been searched Monday by federal officers with Homeland Safety Investigations.
“I lastly felt like justice will likely be finished, justice will likely be mine ― and belong to all of his victims,” Reuben instructed NewsNation.
“For the previous quarter of a century, he has vehemently denied that he was accountable, although I knew wholeheartedly, and so many others who’re in the issue. All of us knew he was accountable,” Reuben added.